Backward design

It is a funny thing that the last chapter to be commented is Chapter 1 called Backward Design”, does it mean we were going backwards through the readings? We have finally come to the last reading from a book that has certainly given us much to think about and to view our daily work and mission in a different way.

This chapter somehow summarizes the main ideas developed in the previous postings. The key issue, once again is focused on our goals, and from there we should start our planning. And as a main goal is of course, having our students to “understand” the contents and through them, develop critical thinking to have active and critical citizens of the society of the future.

However, a change in the view is not enough. When we center our lessons in learning rather than in teaching, we are taking one step forward, and a complete shift in the design would certainly bring such improvement in the quality of education in our system. On the other hand, we teachers seem to be alone in this crusade for better opportunities for our students. Every time interesting article about how to improve education, we feel delighted with the idea of a change and we comment and encourage our colleagues to follow us in this idea. But it is hard to start when all the conditions to carry it out are not given. Think of the poor schools in this country, with crowded classroom where teachers are not even provided with a decent radio or students have to struggle with the cold in winter.

I trust that the more we read and learn about education and learning, the closer we will be to change things. We’ve just taken the first step where our mission is to build a world where all students will have the same opportunities to get a better future for their lives.

Criteria and Validity

I would like to focus my discussion on the following idea that caught my attention; the kind of criteria used will undoubtedly affect the quality of the feedback we, as teachers, are going to give our students. So far we have been discussing about the different elements involved in Understanding by design. However, through the chapters we have analysed, we have come to the conclusion that there is a mismatch between the theory we read and discuss and try to apply in our practices and what we see or experience in our everyday life.
The kind of criteria used appears as another important element in the design, not only because it help in the assessing process, but also, as the author points out, it will somehow affect the learning of the students. The kind of feedback we give them is closely connected to the criteria used. In other words, learning can take a great advantage of the type of feedback given to the students.
But I have a question for you my friends; what if we continuously assess our students and give them no feedback? Is there any purpose on assessing or are we speaking of just testing? How do we expect our students to improve if we fail to tell them what their weaknesses and their strengths are ON TIME? This becomes a more serious issue when we see that at high levels of education (let's say post-graduate courses) this idea is not put into practice. I think is time to ask and demand coherence from the system, especially for those who are supposed to be preparing the future leaders in education.