Rethinking Thinking Backwards

I think that stating that curriculum design should focus on its objectives sounds fairly obvious. The whole point of a plan (or a study plan in this case) lies in its effectiveness. The difference here lies in that the authors offer a clear method for carrying this out and a specific tool (a template) that would allow teachers to follow the proposed principles easily and quickly.

The three stage method understands that first you have to identify goals and decide on priorities. It also calls teachers to be aware of the demands and restrictions that institutions put on their work. Then you have to “determine the acceptable evidence” of achievement of desired results. This means that firs you have to “think as an assessor” when planning the content of a unit. Only then you can start designing the content.

This leads to another important idea that the authors put forward: there is not just one learning to be sought, but a set of six different specific learnings. Although the text does not provide more information on the subject this is a point that surely will guide the rest of the reading.

Finally, I think that the effectiveness of the template has to be put to the test. Probably there are more questions to be answered or other issues at stake. At a first glance, it looks perfect, but perhaps it should be tested on a real life situation, before giving a final opinion.