Understanding vs. Knowing: Part 1
The Art of Backward Design
Have you ever encountered a student who could flawlessly recite definitions and key terms, yet faltered when asked to explain the underlying principles or apply that knowledge to a novel situation? This common scenario, particularly prevalent in online learning environments, underscores a fundamental distinction that lies at the heart of effective adult education: the difference between simply knowing and truly understanding. While the ability to recall information, or knowing certainly holds value, it is the deeper capacity for understanding – the ability to make meaning, connect concepts, and apply knowledge effectively – that fosters lasting learning and empowers adult learners to achieve their full potential.
For those of us designing online courses and educational programs for adults, whether in an academic setting or for professional development or training, bridging this gap between knowing and understanding is of great importance. To do it and do it well, we must leverage powerful frameworks grounded in learning theory and instructional design. This three-part blog will explore three such frameworks. The first framework we will explore is backward design.
Laying the Foundation: The Power of Backward Thinking
At the forefront of designing for understanding stands "Understanding by Design" (UbD), a curriculum development model introduced by Grant Wiggins and Jay McTighe in 1998. Often referred to as the "backward design model," UbD offers a purposeful approach to curricular planning, emphasizing a focus on teaching and assessing for understanding and the transfer of learning. This framework encourages educators to begin the design process not with content or activities, but with a clear vision of the desired learning outcomes.
The core of UbD lies in its three-stage backward design process.
Stage 1: Identify Desired Results compels educators to define what learners should know, understand, and be able to do upon completion of the learning experience. This involves pinpointing enduring understandings – the key concepts and "big ideas" that students should retain long after the course concludes – and formulating essential questions that will guide student inquiry and exploration. As articulated in the UbD framework, educators should consider what aspects of learning will hold long-term relevance for students. These "big ideas" serve as foundational concepts, organizers for connecting discrete information, and transferable knowledge applicable to various contexts. Essential questions, in turn, encourage critical thinking and delve into significant issues within a discipline.
Once the desired results are established, Stage 2: Determine Acceptable Evidence requires educators to think like assessors and specify how student understanding will be demonstrated. This involves identifying the evidence that will convincingly show learners have achieved the intended outcomes, with a strong emphasis on performance tasks that require students to actively apply their learning in authentic, real-world contexts. Beyond traditional assessments like retention quizzes, the UbD framework highlights the "six facets of understanding" – the capacities to explain, interpret, apply, shift perspective, empathize, and self-assess – as key indicators of genuine comprehension. Considering these facets can significantly inform the design of assessment tasks that truly reveal the depth of a learner's understanding.
Finally, Stage 3: Plan Learning Experiences and Instruction involves designing the sequence of lessons, activities, and teaching strategies that will effectively guide students towards achieving the desired results and successfully demonstrating their understanding through the identified evidence. The crucial element here is alignment – ensuring that all learning experiences and instructional activities directly support the attainment of the desired results and prepare students for the assessments.
The power of backward design in fostering deeper understanding lies in its inherent intentionality. By beginning with the "end in mind," educators ensure that all learning activities are purposeful and directly contribute to the development of student understanding. It ensures that learners have attained the crucial ability to transfer their learning to new situations. This approach stands in stark contrast to traditional "forward design," which often starts with the selection of content or activities without a clear line of sight to specific learning outcomes or how understanding will be assessed.
For adult learners, the emphasis on the transfer of learning within the UbD framework is particularly significant. Adults are often motivated by the desire to acquire knowledge and skills that they can immediately apply to solve problems and enhance their performance in their professional or personal lives. Designing learning experiences with transferability as a core goal directly addresses this inherent need for relevance. In addition, UbD's perspective of teachers as "coaches of understanding" resonates strongly with adult learning principles that champion learner autonomy and self-direction. This coaching approach emphasizes guiding learners to actively construct their own meaning rather than passively receiving information, like in the traditional banking model. This approach aligns with the self-directed nature that adult learners typically bring to their educational endeavors.
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