Backward Lesson Design
Last updated on 2023-09-01 | Edit this page
Overview
Questions
- What is meant by backward design of curriculum?
- What are the main steps of the backward design process?
- What are the advantages and disadvantages of backward design?
Objectives
By the end of this session, participants should be able to…
- discuss the application of backward design to the curriculum for short-format training events like Carpentries workshops.
- list at least three advantages and at least one disadvantage of taking a backward design approach to lesson/curriculum design.
Reading List
- CLDT episode: Lesson Design
- Curriculum Development Handbook: Backward design
- Section 4 (Nicholls’ five phases of curriculum design) of Course design: Considerations for trainers - a Professional Guide by Allegra Via et al, 20201
Discussion Questions
- What are the three stages of the backward design process? How are they addressed in the lesson development process?
- Why is it helpful to start the lesson development process with the target audience in mind?
- In The Carpentries, we tend to present learning objectives as opposed to outcomes. What distinction, if any, do you see between these two terms? Which do you think is more appropriate? In your opinion, should The Carpentries switch over and start listing “Outcomes” instead of “Objectives” on episodes pages?
- How is designing assessments helpful in the lesson design process?
- How to decide what to teach first? How to decide what not to teach?
- What are the advantages and disadvantages of backward design?
Reading List
- CLDT episode: Identifying Your Target Audience
- CLDT episode: Defining Lesson Objectives/Outcomes
- Section 3 (Formal curriculum design) of Course design: Considerations for trainers - a Professional Guide by Allegra Via et al, 20202
- Kirschner et al. 2006
- Lujan & DiCarlo 2005
- (Optional) Chapter 1, How Does Students’ Prior Knowledge Affect Their Learning?, of Ambrose et al. 2010.↩︎
- (Optional) Chapter 2, How Does the Way Students Organize Knowledge Affect Their Learning?, of Ambrose et al. 2010.↩︎
Key Points
- Backward design describes a process for curriculum development that begins with the definition of skills learners will obtain from following the curriculum.
- The main steps of backward design are:
- defining learning outcomes,
- designing learning experiences to achieve those outcomes,
- developing content to support these experiences,
- assessing learners’ progress towards the desired outcomes,
- and evaluating the curriculum design based on this assessment.
- Backward design helps keep curriculum development focussed on the intended learner, and it can make it easier to trim down lesson content to focus only on what is required to achieve specific outcomes.
- Creating a new lesson/curriculum with backward design can take more time than an alternative, “content-first” approach.
Via A, Palagi PM, Lindvall JM et al. Course design: Considerations for trainers – a Professional Guide [version 1; not peer reviewed]. F1000Research 2020, 9:1377 (document) (https://doi.org/10.7490/f1000research.1118395.1)↩︎
Via A, Palagi PM, Lindvall JM et al. Course design: Considerations for trainers – a Professional Guide [version 1; not peer reviewed]. F1000Research 2020, 9:1377 (document) (https://doi.org/10.7490/f1000research.1118395.1)↩︎