From the Theoretical to the Practical
The curriculum approaches outlined above are theoretical and give us food for thought – andperhaps bases for research. What we need, in addition, are practical, simple approaches to curriculum development. For that, we turn to curriculum, instruction, and assessment specialists such as Dee Fink, Grant Wiggins, and Jay McTighe.
Fink (2007) writes about designing significant learning experiences in college courses using aprocess called integrated course design (ICD). His model includes the familiar triad of learning goals, teaching and learning activities and feedback/assessment. Learning goals identify what we want students to learn, learning activities identify how students will learn what it is we want them to learn, and the feedback/assessment identifies how we will know students have achieved the intended goals. Fink emphasizes, however, that these components are all influenced by “situational factors,” such as course context, professional expectations, and the nature of the subject, the students, and the teacher. He presents a taxonomy of significant learning that outlines six kinds of learning to consider when designing a course. The taxonomy, unlike Blooms’s well-known cognitive taxonomy, is interactive rather than hierarchical. The identified
kinds of learning include foundational knowledge, application, integration, human dimension,
caring, and learning how to learn. Fink’s book (2003) explores each aspect of the taxonomy and
includes feedback from professors who have used this approach to curriculum design and have
found it helpful.
Currently, one of the most influential books on curriculum development is Wiggins and Mc
Tighe’s (1998, 2005) Understanding by Design. The authors call their approach “backward
design” and, sure enough, they cite Ralph Tyler’s (1949) model as providing the logic behind
their “new” idea. However, the backwards design model avoids the mechanistic predisposition
of behaviorism and offers a major advantage by featuring the latest thinking in assessment.
Though it draws most of its examples from K-12 education settings, the principles put forth by
the authors are relevant to curricula at any level.
Wiggins and McTighe say their design is backward because it starts with the end, the desired
results, first and then works backward to a curriculum based on acceptable evidence of learning.
The stages in the backward design process are
1- Identify desired results
2- Determine acceptable evidence
3- Plan learning experiences and instruction
In stage 1, consideration is given to what students should know, understand, and be able to do,
and here is where it becomes clear that the orientation to curriculum design is more constructivist
than behaviorist. The authors suggest a framework for establishing curriculum content by
considering three levels of knowledge: that which is worth being familiar with, that which is
important to know and do, and that which represents an “enduring” understanding. Third level
knowledge, enduring understandings, refers to essential principles of disciplinary and/or
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“Curriculum Development” by Judith Howard
Center for the Advancement of Teaching and Learning
Elon University
interdisciplinary thought. Here, as you might expect, they reference Bruner (1960), reiterating
his idea that these essential concepts and principles are what should anchor the curriculum,
whether it be a unit of study, a course, or a major field comprised of a number of courses.
The authors offer four criteria for determining essential understandings:
1- To what extent does the idea, topic, or process represent a “big idea” having enduring
value beyond the classroom?
2- To what extent does the idea, topic, or process reside at the heart of the discipline?
3- To what extent does the idea, topic, or process require uncoverage?
4- To what extent does the idea, topic, or process offer potential for engaging students?
(Wiggins & McTighe, 1998, 10-11)
Stage 2 asks how we will know if students have achieved the desired understandings and skills.
At this point, thought is given to what assessment evidence will document that the desired
learning has taken place. The authors advocate considering a wide range of evidence and
assessment methods ranging from informal checks for understanding to complex performance
tasks and projects. It is this stage that is probably the most “backward” for instructors. There is
a strong tendency not to think about assessment until toward the end of a topic or unit or course.
Considering assessment as evidence of learning, and considering it before teaching, puts
assessment not only in a new place, but in a new light. (For a very interesting article presenting
principles for assessment in higher education, see Wiggins “Toward Assessment Worthy of the
Liberal Arts: The Truth May Make You Free, but the Test May Keep You Imprisoned” at
http://www.maa.org/SAUM/articles/wiggins_appendix.html).
It is not until stage 3 that the learning experiences (instructional strategies) are planned. Since
acceptable evidence has already been considered, the learning experiences are designed to enable
students to produce the desired results. Teaching is viewed as a means to an end, not an end in
itself. Wiggins and McTighe suggest asking the following questions during this stage:
What enabling knowledge and skills will students need to perform effectively and
achieve desired results?
What activities will equip students with the needed knowledge and skills?
What will need to be taught and coached, and how should it best be taught, in light of
performance goals?
What materials and resources are best suited to accomplish these goals?
Is the overall design and effective? (Wiggins & McTighe, 1998, 13)
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“Curriculum Development” by Judith Howard
Center for the Advancement of Teaching and Learning
Elon University
Curriculum Coherence
Regardless of theoretical orientation or practical perspective, curriculum writers emphasize the
importance of curricular coherence. The concept is simple, hearkening back to Bruner and
others before him,1 who called for revisiting important ideas again and again in order to deepen
understanding and encourage transfer. At the university level, where we have major fields of
study that encompass a collection of courses, we have the opportunity to design a coherent
curriculum. Such a curriculum need not be sequential in the traditional sense. It might be
problem-based or issues-based, with students making ever-deepening inquiries into central
concepts and principles. We are in a position to craft a series of courses, in whatever form, that
are carefully orchestrated to advance the essential knowledge and skills of our fields of study and
allow students to broaden and deepen their understanding as they progress through them. The
idea is simple, but the work is hard.
There is a technique called curriculum mapping (Jacobs, 1997) that might be helpful in such an
endeavor. It has been used successfully in the development of curricular scope-and-sequences in
K-12 settings, but again it is a concept that has relevance for higher education. The technique is
relatively straightforward, first involving the identification of the content and skills taught in
each course at each level. A calendar-based chart, or “map,” is created for each course so that it
is easy to see not only what is taught in a course, but when it is taught. Examination of these
maps can reveal both gaps in what is taught and repetition among courses, but its value lies in
identifying areas for integration and concepts for spiraling. What are students taking at the same
time in different courses? Are there ways to integrate the content to enlarge understanding?
What do students take at one level that is repeated at the next? Are there ways to spiral
conceptual understanding and skill development?
For the past year, the Education Department has been working on increasing the coherency of its
curriculum, and using a process similar to curriculum mapping to do so. We have engaged in
departmental “conversations” on the first Friday of each month to discuss course goals, content,
and assignments. It has been an eye-opening exercise and, yes, hard work, as we have tried to
articulate the essential knowledge and skills of teacher education and our own assumptions and
values that frame them. We have examined our course content, our required assignments, and
our class activities to consider the alignment of courses typically taken during the same semester
(horizontal alignment) and those taken in sequence (vertical alignment). We have drawn
diagrams and made charts; we have listed and sorted; we have agreed and disagreed. Progress
clearly has been made in reducing redundancy and discarding topics that do not contribute to
what we have determined to be our essential knowledge and skills, but after a year, we are still
not finished. We look forward to the university-wide discussion of academic challenge as a way
of extending and informing our continued conversations.