The document emphasizes the importance of backward design in educational planning, stating that effective teaching focuses on achieving clear intellectual goals rather than merely covering content or engaging in activities. It discusses the concept of transfer of learning, where students must apply knowledge in new contexts, and stresses that understanding big ideas is crucial for meaningful learning. Additionally, it highlights common frustrations educators face when students struggle to recall or apply what they have learned, advocating for a more focused approach to teaching that prioritizes deep understanding and real-world application.

2. Two Key Understandings
• You must design “backward” from
understanding if you want to achieve
understanding “by design”
• Without transparent and important
priorities - stated as performance, not
content - neither teacher nor student can
be effective.

3. Twin Sins of Unit Design:
“Coverage-focused” teaching
“Activity-focused” teaching
Teacher 1 is focused on “getting through” the
material; Teacher 2 is focused on keeping
students active and engaged.
Neither method reveals any clear intellectual
goals. Any understanding that happens is
essentially a piece of good luck.
Understanding is not a part of the design.

4. The BIG ideas of UbD
UbD Big Idea Why important? If not…
`Backward Plans need to be Aimless activity or
`Design well aligned to be coverage
effective
Understanding The essence of Students fail to
Transfer understanding & the apply
point of schooling Poor test results
Understanding How transfer happens Learning is more
via Big Ideas Makes learning more difficult, less
connected engaging, and
fragmented

5. The course is not the
content
Don’t confuse inputs with outputs:
• Thousands of car parts with the ability
to drive
• Drills & skills with playing the game well
• List of ingredients and kitchen skills with
the ability to prepare and cook meals
• The 700 page computer book with the
ability to use the software to write
letters and reports

6. Teaching vs. Learning
Teaching does not cause learning.
Successful attempts by the learner to
learn and use what they have learned
to achieve causes learning

7. I taught spot
to whistle.
I can’t hear
him whistling.
I said I taught
him. I didn’t say
he learned it!

8. Textbooks & Transfer
The textbook almost never focuses
on transfer; rather it provides
mostly logically organized content
and drills only.

9. Teachers, do you get
frustrated by students who:
• fail to recall last week’s or even yesterday’s
lessons?
• cannot transfer their learning?
• don’t have any idea what they are to do?
• don’t “get it” and ask “dumb questions’?
• are bored yet otherwise seem bright?
Then UbD may be able to help you!

10. Backward Design from
“Content Coverage”
I want students to understand -
The Constitution
The three branches of government
This is not a learning goal - this just
states what the content is.

11. Backward Design from the
Understanding Sought
I want students to leave my course having
understood that:
 the Constitution was a solution based on
compromise to real and pressing problems and
disagreements in governance; not an idea out of
thin air
 the Constitution was a brilliant balance and limit
of powers but was grounded in a long and
sometimes bitter history, with many fights that
are and always will be with us

12. Backward Design from the
Understanding Sought
(continued)
I then want students to transfer that
understanding to a modern relevant
situation:
The problem of designing a government
for Iraq
A system of governance for our school

13. Backward Design from
Understanding
Implications to the teacher:
You have to design your courses
backward from the kinds of
problems, tasks, situations, and
conditions you want students to be
able to eventually handle on their own
(student autonomy).

14. The BIG ideas of UbD
UbD big idea Why important? If not…
Backward Plans need to be Aimless activity or
Design well aligned to be coverage
effective
Understanding The essence of Students fail to
Transfer understanding & the apply
point of schooling Poor test results
Understanding How transfer happens Learning is more
via Big Ideas Makes learning more difficult, less
connected engaging, and
fragmented

15. Transfer:
Defined & Justified
What is transfer of learning?
Transfer of learning is the use of knowledge
and skills, acquired in an earlier context, in a
new context. It occurs when a person’s
learning in one situation influences that
person’s learning and performance in other
situations.

16. The Transfer Question
What should the student be able to
do effectively with a repertoire of
knowledge and skills, increasingly on
their own, in future tasks?
How will transfer ability be
developed over the course of the
course?

17. Transfer - the real
“game” of using content
on your own
Applying prior learning to
* a novel and increasingly new and unfamiliar
looking task
* an increasingly challenging context
and situation in terms of purpose,
audience, dilemmas, etc.

18. Examples in Geography - Draft
• Make decisions in their lives to use resources more
efficiently to live sustainably.
• Critically appraise conditions of well-being that affect
people on this planet.
• Appreciate what you have and how well-being can be
improved for people in our community, our state, and
our world.
• Make choices to act ethically and to influence others
to ensure we can live sustainably into the future.

19. Examples in History - Draft
• Understand the relevance of historical events to the
world in which we live.
• Critically appraise historical and contemporary
claims/decisions.
• Evaluate and use sources of information to address a
question, form an opinion, or to solve a problem
• Communicate to inform and explain a topic, concept, or
process to a variety of audiences.
• Evaluate an argument and develop and/or defend a point
of view.

20. Examples in P.E.
• Live a healthy life by making
healthful choices and decisions
regarding diet, exer­cise, stress
management, alcohol/drug use.
• Participate in activities that promote
wellness throughout life.

21. Transfer goals
On link from Tom March

22. Transfer based on
BIG Ideas permits
future learning

23. The BIG ideas of UbD
UbD big idea Why important? If not…
Backward Plans need to be Aimless activity or
Design well aligned to be coverage
effective
Understanding The essence of Students fail to
Transfer understanding & the apply
point of schooling Poor test results
Understanding How transfer happens Learning is more
via Big Ideas Makes learning more difficult, less
connected engaging, and
fragmented

24. Big Ideas are Linchpins
•Hold together related concepts
•Help facts and skills stick together and stick in
our minds
•At the heart of expert understanding of the
subject
Example: Effective writers hook and
hold their readers.

25. Big Ideas have to be
Uncovered
* Not obvious and often counterintuitive.
* Like “guiding conjectures” – subject to
refinement and adjustment as learning goes
on.
* Require consideration and reconsideration -
Inquiry.
* Have great transfer value.

26. You’ve got to go
below the surface...

27. to uncover the
really ‘big ideas.’

28. Transfer is VitalTransfer is Vital
In each subject field there are some basic ideas which
summarize much of what scholars have learned…These
ideas give meaning to much that has been learned, and
they provide the basic ideas for dealing with many new
problems… We believe that this is a primary obligation
of the scholars (and) teachers to search constantly
for these abstractions, to find ways of helping
students learn them, and especially to help students
learn how to use them in a great variety of problem
situations…
Bloom, 1981, p.235