Instructional Design of the 2010 Curriculum for Basic Education (Part One)

Following its mandate to improve the country's curriculum for Basic Education in order to equip the youth with the
skillsand knowledge needed in this Information Age, the Department of Education (DepEd) deemed it wise to utilize
theteaching-learning paradigm proposed by Grant Wiggins and Jay Mctighe (2002).

The authors call it "Understanding by Design,” now popularly called UbD.

1. UNDERSTANDING by DESIGN (UbD)

Q1: In essence, what is UbD?It is a proposed design for a curriculum framework, a course program, a unit plan, a
learning system and the like. Itcan simply be described as an instructional design.Q2: What are the major components of
all instructional designs? All instructional designs, including UbD, have: (a) educational goals/objec-tives and content, (b)
teaching-learningstrategies, and (c) assessment.

1.1 Goals/Objectives and Content

Educational psychologists group the general goals of education into three:a. Knowledge (cognitive goal)b. Skills, both
cognitive and manipulative (behavioral goal)c. Attitudes (affective goal)Some educators express objectives as learning
competencies. For lesson plans, some educators recommend thatthese be stated as behavioral objectives, since
behavior is easiest to detect if the objectives have been attained.Content includes the main topics and major ideas per
chapter.

1.2 Teaching Strategies and Techniques

All instructional designs encourage teachers to use varied instructional activities that are relevant to the students'
dailylife and cater to their learning styles and multiple intelligences.The strategies and techniques that teachers use vary
depending on various factors-LEARNER factors (theircharacteristics, SES, readiness, etc.); LEARNING ENVIRONMENT
factors (school facilities and equipment, books andother learning resources, etc.); and TEACHER factors (their academic
background, trainings attended, teachingexperience, etc.).The teaching strategies also vary among the various academic
disciplines. In science, for instance, found to be mosteffective are: (a) the inquiry approach and (b) hands-on learning or
learning by doing, where the learner employs asmany senses as possible in the learning process-touch, sight, hearing,
smell. On the other hand, very effective in askill subject are: (a) learning by doing and (b) drill/repetition.

1.3 Assessment

Assessment is used to monitor learning, to find out if the students are achieving the objectives. It tells the teacher if
thestudents understood what he/she taught them.Very helpful to instruction is formative evaluation. The results of
formative evaluation are the teacher's guide inidentifying the topics and skills where the students did not have
meaningful learning and, therefore, need to bereinforced. Formative evaluation is usually short and addresses specific
topics/concepts and skills.Summative evaluation is less useful to instruction since it is given at the end of the
quarter/unit and very little remedialwork can be done, if ever.
Then there is the issue of traditional versus alternative tests. Traditional tests (e.g., multiple choice, matching, fillingthe
blanks, etc.) are characterized by the fact that the answers to the questions are already found in the test, and
thestudents simply choose or predict them. These tests are easy to check, but the thinking skills they involve
aregenerally lower than those of alternative tests. Alternative tests, also called performance-based assessment or
performance tasks, are characterized by the fact thatthe outputs or the answers to certain questions in the task are
"constructed" by the students, borrowing the term fromconstructivism.The outputs of performance tasks are not graded
the same way as the results of traditional tests. They are gradedbased on a set of criteria that is unique to each output.
Thus, performance tasks are accompanied by rubrics.Q3: In simple terms, what do these basic components of an
instructional design mean to the classroom teacher?When a teacher is given a course assignment at the beginning of the
school year, he/she has three questions in mind.These are:a. What will my students learn from the
course?......................................................I. CONTENTb. How will I teach it so that it will be understood by the
students?........................II. STRATEGIESc. How will I know if indeed the students understood
it?.........................................III. ASSESSMENT

2. Implementation Strategies of the Proposed Design

Q4: In terms of the basic components of an instructional design, what are the contributions of UbD?The major
contributions of UbD are in the areas of content and assessment.

2.1 Content

Content is the structural base of the knowledge goal of education in school.a. UbD recommends that, from the start, the
teacher should identify the main idea, or what UbD calls 'big idea' or'enduring understanding' and what DepEd calls
'essential understanding' (EU). The idea is that, as far as content isconcerned, the EU should serve as the focus of all the
instructional activities in each chapter or unit or quarter.b. UbD also recommends that, to arrive at the EU, the teacher
should initiate the discussion by means of a question,what UbD and DepEd call 'essential questions' (EQ). The answer to
the EQ is the EU. Sometimes, several EQ areanswered by one EU. And sometimes, one EQ is answered by several EU.

2.2 Assessment

a. UbD recommends that, right after the identification of the EU, the teacher should think of the
appropriateperformance task that will depict students understanding of the EU and supporting concept(s) and, at the
same time,promote lifelong learning.The reason is that, since the teacher has a goal, he/she must have the appropriate
tool, or instrument, to determineattainment of said goal.b. Once the students' performance task has been identified, the
teacher may now choose instructional activities thatwill help the students understand the EU and EQ and, at the same
time, give them the knowledge and skills that willenable them to successfully accomplish the identified performance
assessment.

3. Classroom Instruction

Q5: What does UbD say about the importance of teaching strategies and learning activities in the classroom?Q6: Is
there a place for lesson plans in UbD?The following text answers both Q5 and Q6.a. UbD recognizes the importance of
having a vast repertoire of strategies and activities to attain the educationalgoals.The choice of learning activities should,
of course, take into consideration the various factors cited in section 1.2, asidefrom the special curricular features that
DepEd requires such as integration of values and environmental education.b. It goes without saying that management of
instructional activities is achieved through a lesson plan. However, withUbD, the lesson plan may cover an entire quarter
or unit or chapter. But if the classroom teacher feels morecomfortable if he/she also has a daily lesson plan, so be it.
c. In this regard, all that UbD reminds the teacher of is this: before designing the lesson plan, go back to theCONTENT
and the ASSESSMENT pre-viously identified.

4. Back to the Overall Design

Q7: How may this sequence of the components of an instructional design proposed by UbD be visualized?

Stage 1

Stage 2

Stage 3

CONTENT/OUTCOME/DESIREDRESULT(EU, EQ) ASSESSMENT(performance task)INSTRUCTIONALSTRATEGIES &

ACTIVITIES(lesson plan)a. The diagram above answers Q7. The sequence of the three major components of the design is
presented as Stage1, 2 and 3.b. The diagram above also answers Q5 and Q6. Yes, there is a place for lesson plans in UbD.
There is also a place forvarious assessment strategies to monitor learning-short quizzes, vocabulary exercises, drills,
problem sets, etc. But foroverall assessment of learning or understanding the big idea or EU, UbD recommends a
performance task, which isan alternative assess-ment or what DepEd refers to as authentic assessment.c. In constructing
the students' performance task in Stage 2, UbD recom-mends that the teacher makes the studentsdo one or more of the
following, which reflect(s) six levels of understanding: explain, interpret, apply, deve-lopperspective, show empathy and
manifest self-knowledge.It might be noted that the first four in the list of 'levels of understanding' or 'facets of learning'
overlap with the familiarcognitive skills like analyzing, interpreting, applying, comparing, etc. But the last two differ from
the rest in that thesetwo are affective and reflective.

5. Back to the Teaching-Learning Plan

5.1 Alignment of Instructional Activities with Goal (EU) and Assessment

Of primary consideration in making the teaching-learning plan (Stage 3) is that it must be aligned with the content(Stage
1) and assessment (Stage 2) components of the plan. This means that the plan should have appropriate ac-tivities and
learning resources that would ensure understanding of the EU.

5.2 Thoughts from Constructivism

Basically, constructivism is a theory on how a person learns. The following ideas from this theory are very helpful tothe
classroom teacher:a. A learner constructs his own understanding and knowledge of his surroundings.b. He/She does this
through two means: (1) by experiencing things and (2) by reflecting on said experiences.c. When the learner meets a
new information or idea from a learning activity, he examines his prior knowledge andtries to reconcile the new with the
previous ideas and experiences. He asks questions, tries to answer the questions,explores implications, and assesses
both his prior knowledge and the new idea. If he cannot reconcile them, twothings may happen: (1) If the prior
knowledge leaves many unanswered questions (meaning, it is indefensible), hemay accept the new idea and even
change (or give up) his previous belief. (2) On the other hand, if he finds the newidea indefensible, he may judge it as
irrelevant and, thus, reject it.Q8: What is the teacher's role in the classroom described in item c above?d. The teacher's
role is (1) to provide learning activities/experiences aligned with the big idea he is teaching; (2) todiscover the student's
prior knowledge; and (3) to guide the student through the learning and reflection process. Whenthe student succeeds in
this learning experience, up to the point of changing his earlier belief in favor of the new idea,that student is said to have
had a 'meaningful learning'; he has 'constructed his own understanding and knowledge'.

5.3 Teaching Guide for Stage 3

 DepEd recommends four steps for developing a lesson parallel to the learning process discussed in section 5.2.
Theseare: (a) EXPLORE, (b) FIRM UP, (c) DEEPEN and (d) TRANSFER/APPLY the learning. These are illustrated by
thelesson exemplars in Part Two of this publication.Read

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times Last modified on Friday, 02 December 2011 01:53