The Backward Design Framework
Backward design, also known as objective-centered course design, is a framework for balancing the overarching goals of a course with the structure of individual class meetings. The backward design framework asks instructors to start at the end: what do you want your students to take away from the course? From there, you work backward to create a plan that guides students toward those goals. In other words, it’s a tool that can help you see both the forest and the trees.
You can think of backward design as following a three-step process:
- Establish the learning goals and objectives you want your students to achieve by defining what knowledge and skills they should acquire.
- Create assessments to measure students’ progress toward those specific objectives.
- Plan instructional content and activities to equip students with the skills they need to succeed on assessments.
By working backward from the overarching course goals to individual sessions’ content and activities, you’ll ensure that each class meeting is attuned to the bigger picture.
Defining Learning Goals and Objectives
The first step in lesson planning is figuring out what you want students to gain from the course. These are your learning goals—the new skills and knowledge you want students to develop. Learning goals can be broad, semester-long aims (for example, developing fluency in Python or deeper knowledge of British modernist fiction), while learning objectives are smaller, more concrete objectives you want students to meet along the way (for example, writing an if-else statement in Python or writing a close-reading of Virginia Woolf’s Mrs. Dalloway).
Even if you’re not responsible for setting the overall course goals—if you’re a TF or a PTAI, the lead instructor or course director may be in charge of those—it’s always wise to make sure you understand these goals and are able to articulate them in your own words and in your own way. This helps you reinforce the course’s purpose for students and ensures your individual sessions align with the bigger picture.
Here’s a helpful analogy: if a course is a hiking trail, your semester-long learning goals are the vista at the end of the trail, while learning objectives are the scenic outlooks you find along the way. We’ll return to this analogy throughout the chapter.
Tips for Writing Learning Goals and Objectives
- Use student-centric language to frame your learning goals: “By the end of this [course, class session, lab meeting], students will be able to…” This wording empowers students to take ownership of their role in the learning process.
- Limit yourself to three to five semester-long learning goals and a similar number of learning objectives for each class meeting. Doing so benefits both you and your students: it reminds you, the instructor, of what matters most in the course or class meeting, and it avoids inundating your students with information.
- Aim for goals and objectives that are S.M.A.R.T.: Specific, Measurable, Achievable, Result-oriented, and Time-bound.
Assessing Student Learning
Let’s use our hiking analogy: assessments are like the rest stops where the hike leader (you) checks to see how all the hikers (students) are doing on the journey.
Assessments track student progress and provide feedback on their learning. Although we tend to think of assessments exclusively as graded assignments—a midterm exam, a research paper, a lab report—a well-rounded approach incorporates a range of assessments, both graded and ungraded. These are also known as summative and formative assessments.
Summative assessments evaluate students’ learning at the end of an instructional period; they include assignments like midterm exams, finals, and research papers. These are often formal and graded. Formative assessments allow you to check in on students’ progress throughout the term. They can take a variety of forms; some examples are in-class free-writes, polls or clicker questions, discussion forum posts, or homework assignments. These are often more informal and ungraded.
For TFs and PTAIs, summative assessments are typically designed by the lead instructor, though you may have flexibility in incorporating formative assessments into your sections. You may not be responsible for designing the summative assessments for your class. As you consider what kinds of formative assessments might be useful in your discussion sections, labs, or other class meetings, think about your overall course goals and objectives. What metrics will help you gauge student progress toward these goals?
For more information about summative and formative assessments and further advice about how to incorporate them in your course, see Ch. 5.1, “Assessments.”
Class Activities and Content
You’ve established your learning goals and selected useful assignments; the next step is designing class content and activities. These serve as the means through which students acquire the knowledge and skills they’ll eventually demonstrate in assessments.
Just as your choice of assessment aligns with the learning goals, class content and activities should be structured to support both. Think about what students will be asked to show on their assessments; what do you hope they’ll learn, and what kinds of materials and activities will facilitate that learning?
Going back to our hiking analogy, these class activities make up the trail that guides hikers (students) toward each checkpoint (assessment) and final vista (learning goal). And by the time you get to the top, there’s an equally great sense of accomplishment!
Bloom’s Taxonomy
As you formulate learning objectives, assessments, and class activities, you’ll likely engage students in different cognitive processes, such as memorization, analysis, and content creation. Bloom’s Taxonomy is an educational framework that categorizes these processes into six categories, progressing from least to most complex: remembering, understanding, applying, analyzing, evaluating, and creating.
Bloom’s Taxonomy doesn’t necessarily imply a rigid or linear progression that needs to be followed in the same way. While foundational knowledge is an important baseline, the development of more complex thinking skills doesn’t always occur in a strict hierarchy. However, you may find that scaffolding these processes—beginning with less complex tasks and progressing to higher-order thinking skills—will give your students the foundation they need to achieve their learning goals.
Summary
Preparing your class becomes much more manageable when you have a clear framework for choosing learning goals, assessments, and content. Together, backward design and Bloom’s Taxonomy provide a roadmap of where you want to go, how you’ll get there, and how you’ll track student progress. Remember that flexibility is key: if assessments reveal gaps in learning, you can always adapt—like stopping for water along the way of our trail.