The document discusses designing and planning teaching sessions with a focus on 'constructive alignment', a concept developed by John B. Biggs. It emphasizes the importance of defining clear learning outcomes and aligning teaching activities and assessments to enhance student learning and understanding. Participants will learn how to effectively communicate expected learning outcomes and choose suitable teaching methods to foster deep learning.

1. Designing and planning a
teaching session
Anna Stockman, Blekinge Institute of Technology
Based on Designing and Planning Teaching by Dr Clive Young. Licensed under a Creative Commons
Attribution-NonCommercial-ShareAlike 2.0 UK: England & Wales License.
http://www.ucl.ac.uk/calt/support/cpd4he/resources/planning_teaching
Based on a work at www.ucl.ac.uk.
University of Rwanda, Kigali, 20140310-20140311

2. Expected learning outcomes
• familiar with the notion “constructive alignment”
• able to select appropriate teaching and learning activities to
support chosen intended outcomes
At the end of this session participants should be:

3. Constructive alignment
John B. Biggs has treated the subject in several
books and articles.
One example:
Biggs, J. 1996, "Enhancing teaching through constructive
alignment", Higher Education, vol. 32, no. 3, pp. 347-
364.
Constructive alignment – what is it?

4. Constructive alignment
– congruence between
• What the teacher intends learners to
be able to do, know or understand
(can be described as outcomes)
• How they teach i.e. the activities
• How they assess

5. Constructive alignment
New learning and knowledge builds on
old understanding – rarely a „blank
slate‟
Learning is not just adding knowledge but
bringing change or transformation to
pre-existing concepts to refine
understanding and linkages – hence
notion of „deep learning‟
(Video)

6. Constructive alignment
What the teacher intends students to learn:
“outcomes”
Planning starts with clear learning
outcomes and the aim of planning is to
align our learning activities with these.
Rationale: the planning of learning
experiences and assessment of student
learning has a significant impact on
students‟ approaches to learning.
Consider the disciplinary contexts

7. Constructive alignment
How will the intended learning outcomes
be communicated to students, staff and
external audiences?
Use language which students can
understand