Backward Design (Understanding by Design) — Comprehensive Notes

What Is Backward Design?

  • Backward design is a planning approach that starts with a clear sense of the end goals before designing the curriculum or learning experiences. It emphasizes knowing the destination first so that current steps lead toward that destination. This aligns with popular ideas about purposeful planning and with the notion that design should be audience-centered. In education, the audience is primarily students, and the effectiveness of curriculum, assessments, and instruction is judged by student learning of the desired outcomes.
  • Designers in education operate like other design professions (architecture, engineering, graphic arts): they follow standards and constraints, and they must consider the needs of their end users (students, parents, administrators). Standards from national, state, district, or institution shape priorities and guide both curriculum and assessment design.
  • In backward design, assessment is not an afterthought but an explicit driver of design. Instead of planning teaching first and then selecting tests, instructors plan to gather evidence of learning from the outset. The guiding question is: what evidence would demonstrate that students have attained the intended understandings and proficiencies?
  • The approach is not radical; it echoes Ralph Tyler's 1949 claim that objectives guide material selection, content outlining, instructional procedures, and exam preparation. Backward design makes this logic explicit and systematic.
  • Backward design can be described as purposeful task analysis or planned coaching: given a task, what lessons and practice lead to mastery of key performances? It is forward-looking in execution but backward in traditional habits of starting with content rather than outcomes.
  • A key outcome of backward design is greater coherence among desired results, performances, and learning experiences, which tends to improve student performance and achievement of goals.

The Backward Design Process

The process comprises three stages. A practical illustration uses a 5th grade unit on nutrition to show how the stages unfold in real planning.

Stage 1. Identify Desired Results

  • Questions to answer: what should students know, understand, and be able to do; what is worthy of understanding; what enduring understandings are desired.
  • Establish priorities by examining standards and curriculum expectations; content often exceeds what is reasonable to cover, so choices must be made.
  • A three-ring framework helps visualize priorities:
    • Outer ring: worth being familiar with (the broad landscape or context that students should encounter).
    • Middle ring: important to know and do (the essential knowledge and skills students must master to perform key performances).
    • Inner ring: enduring understandings (the big ideas that students should retain and that enable transfer beyond the unit).
  • Enduring understandings are big ideas or linchpin ideas that anchor the unit. They are concepts students take with them beyond the course and are central to transfer of learning.
  • Filters to determine what is worth understanding:
    • Filter 1: Enduring understandings have lasting value and transfer beyond the classroom; focus on big ideas with broad applicability.
    • Filter 2: Ideas should lie at the heart of the discipline and involve authentic engagement in doing the discipline; students should see how knowledge is generated, tested, and used.
    • Filter 3: Uncoverage targets abstract or counterintuitive ideas that students often misunderstand; uncovering these ideas helps address misconceptions.
    • Filter 4: Engage students by presenting big ideas in ways that connect to their interests, questions, or problems to encourage inquiry and motivation.
  • The design under Bruner emphasizes focusing on fundamental principles that give structure to a discipline; understanding these principles enables transfer of learning to new contexts.
  • The design package for Stage 1 in practice uses a design criterion (filters) to narrow content toward enduring understandings and essential questions, so the unit is framed around a big idea rather than a collection of topics.

Stage 2. Determine Acceptable Evidence

  • The unit is planned with assessment evidence in mind from the start. This ensures that the kinds of evidence collected actually demonstrate understanding and proficiency, not merely content coverage.
  • A range of assessment methods should be considered to document understanding over time rather than relying on a single end-of-unit test. The assessment continuum includes:
    • Checks of understanding (oral questions, observations, informal dialogues).
    • Traditional quizzes and tests with selected-response or open-ended prompts.
    • Performance tasks and projects that require demonstration of abilities in real or authentic contexts.
  • The emphasis is on accumulating evidence over time; understanding develops through inquiry and revision, so assessments should capture ongoing growth rather than a one-time moment.
  • MISCONCEPTION ALERT: Evidence of understanding includes both formal and informal assessments across a unit, not only end-of-teaching tests or culminating projects. Self-assessments and ongoing observations can contribute to the evidence base.

Stage 3. Plan Learning Experiences and Instruction

  • With enduring understandings and acceptable evidence in mind, designers plan instructional activities.
  • Key planning questions:
    • What enabling knowledge (facts, concepts, principles) and skills (procedures) are needed to perform well and achieve the results?
    • What activities will build the needed knowledge and skills?
    • What must be taught and coached, and how should it be taught to meet performance goals?
    • What materials and resources best support these goals?
    • Is the overall design coherent and effective?
  • The unit should be anchored by performance tasks or projects that require students to apply knowledge in context and demonstrate understanding. Traditional assessments (quizzes, tests) complement by assessing essential knowledge and skills that contribute to the performances.
  • The approach also emphasizes the alignment of assessment types with learning goals (see cross-referenced figures for assessment type relationships).
  • A common practical example is a three-week unit on nutrition for a 5th-grade class. In this example, the teacher designs the unit around three state health/nutrition standards and tailors the learning experiences to support the chosen enduring understanding through both formative and summative assessments.

Practical Example: A 5th-Grade Nutrition Unit

Stage 1. Identify Desired Results

  • State health standards (three benchmarks) focus on:
    • Understanding the elements of a balanced diet.
    • Understanding personal eating patterns and how to improve them.
    • Understanding essential nutrition concepts.
  • Enduring understanding chosen: students will use an understanding of the elements of good nutrition to plan a balanced diet for themselves and others. This anchors the unit in a real, lifelong application (menu planning).
  • The teacher notes potential misconceptions, such as the belief that healthy foods taste bad, and identifies engagement opportunities for meals, menus, costs, variety, and dietary needs.
  • The teacher also considers engagement potential in the nutrition topic, recognizing that food-related topics tend to engage 10–11 year olds.

Stage 2. Determine Acceptable Evidence

  • The teacher envisions a performance task that aligns with the enduring understanding:
    • Task: design a nutritionally balanced three-day menu for a camp trip, using the USDA food pyramid guidelines and nutrition facts from food labels; include three meals and three snacks per day; aim for taste and nutrition balance.
  • The unit also includes a related project to analyze a hypothetical family's diet for a week and propose improvements.
  • Assessments to implement: prerequisite quizzes on food groups and pyramid guidelines; a culminating assessment on how a nutritionally deficient diet contributes to health problems; a comprehensive assessment package that includes both performance tasks and traditional assessments.

Stage 3. Plan Learning Experiences and Instruction

  • Essential knowledge and skills identified:
    • Knowledge of the food groups and contents of each group; USDA pyramid guidelines; daily nutrient requirements (carbohydrates, protein, sugars, fats, salts, vitamins, minerals).
    • How to read and interpret nutrition labels; how to scale recipes (servings adjustments).
  • Learning resources and activities chosen:
    • USDA pamphlet on food groups and pyramid recommendations; a nutrition video; health textbook (used selectively).
    • A nutritionist from the local hospital to discuss diet planning.
  • Teaching methods: a blend of direct instruction, inductive (constructivist) methods, cooperative learning, and individual activities.
  • Planning insights: backward design clarifies essential topics, allowing focus on key points and avoiding overexposure to less important content. Some textbook sections are valuable, but not all; other resources may be more relevant (brochure, video, expert visit).
  • Four essential features observed in this application:
    1) Assessments and evidence are designed before lessons and guide content emphasis.
    2) Familiar activities may be revised to align with the evidence needed for targeted standards.
    3) Teaching methods and materials are selected last, based on what will best help students meet targets.
    4) The textbook's role may shift from the primary resource to a supporting one, given other valuable resources.

The Big Picture: A Design Template (Figure 1.6)

  • The design process can be visualized as three stages, linked by a design question and guided by filters, with a final design that meets achievement targets.
  • Stage 1: Design considerations include national, state, and district standards, regional topic opportunities, and teacher expertise.
  • Stage 2: The six facets of understanding emerge as part of the assessment continuum, ensuring evidence is credible, authentic, and feasible.
  • Stage 3: A repertoire of research-based learning and teaching strategies is chosen to support essential knowledge and enabling skills, with student-friendly language.
  • The final unit is framed around enduring understandings and essential questions, not just a set of activities.
  • The final design emphasizes coherence: hook the students, provide exploration and equipment, encourage rethink and revision, and finally exhibit and evaluate outcomes.
  • Stage 1, Stage 2, and Stage 3 are connected by a policy of self-assessment and iterative critique to ensure alignment with the design criteria.

Connections to Foundational Ideas

  • The backward design approach echoes foundational educational theory that emphasizes understanding and transfer: powerful ideas, not mere facts, enable learners to apply knowledge in new situations.
  • The work cites the philosopher Jerome Bruner, who argued that curriculum should be guided by fundamental principles and ideas that give structure to a field, enabling transfer and deep understanding rather than mere topic coverage.
  • The authors position backward design as a practical, design-based method to realize Bruner’s vision by providing templates, filters, and design tools to prioritize understanding and authentic learning experiences.

Practical Implications and Takeaways

  • Begin with the end in mind: articulate enduring understandings and performance expectations before selecting content or designing lessons.
  • Use a structured priority framework (worth being familiar, important to know and do, enduring understandings) to decide what to teach and what to assess.
  • Design assessments first, then plan instruction around those assessments, ensuring alignment among goals, evidence, and learning activities.
  • Use a spectrum of assessment methods over time to document understanding; avoid relying solely on end-of-unit tests.
  • Select instructional methods and resources after clarifying what students must demonstrate, ensuring coherence and transfer of learning.
  • Recognize that standards guide design while student needs and authentic contexts guide what to teach and how to teach it.
  • Treat textbooks and traditional materials as supports rather than sole sources; integrate diverse resources (experts, media, hands-on tasks) to support enduring understandings.

Endnote

  • For further insight into authenticity in learning and achievement, see related works by Newmann and Associates (1997) and Wiggins (1998).