“Backward design is goal directed”.
Reflecting on this statement, it seems to me that we have to focus our attention mainly on two aspects in teaching: planning and performing, from the basis of what we want to achieve as a goal. By this I’m referring to the importance of identifying the aim students are expected to reach and the tools we provide them to know how to do it and how to perform.
Not an easy task, if we realize that most of the syllabuses and teachers’ performances point to cover contents instead of highlighting the issue of setting clear means to aim that.
As teachers, we are under the pressure of responding to certain syllabus in terms of contents, but “to what extent does that syllabus give our students practice, coaching and feedback in how to apply the ideas?” (P. 59). How well are we dealing with the concept of teaching? Maybe answering these questions can give us some guidance about the way we are planning and performing our lessons and therefore the results we are gaining in all sense.
“Goals specify what students should know and be able to do”.
As we know, the main issue of the teaching - learning process is Understanding. To do so, clear aims must be set and as well as contents to cover in a certain time. But as teachers, we know that there is never enough time to accomplish this goal and “as a result, teachers are overwhelmed with aims”. But the author analyses this problem and suggests that the contents standards must be “unpacked” to identify the big ideas and core tasks contained within it. Again planning seems to be the key to the effectiveness of the process, thus key ideas, performance indicators and asks are mentioned by the author as essential points when planning and therefore performing. According to this, we must identify the big ideas (what to teach and what to learn) that connect topics and skills.
“We are obliged to make choices and frame priorities”.
As I mentioned before, we must identify Big ideas in order to achieve Understanding , and as time is a problem to cover all the author’s suggestions, we should clearly identify and classify the knowledge our students are expected to “be familiar with” in order “to perform and transfer more complex tasks” (P. 72) But, are we paying attention to such big ideas and key knowledge or are we just trying to cover the syllabuses? Are we prioritizing in our planning? Are we really concentrating on transferability?. Hard task, isn’t it?
“Life can only be understood backwards; but it must be lived forwards.” - Soren Kierkegaard, Journals, 1843.
Hi Maca,
ReplyDeleteTime, time, time....
I agree with you the tiem factro is always against us, and again big ideas and bright questions, but you know what I think we could do? devote 5 minutes of your class to questions or to rich discusion, books closed and open hearts.It works for me, sometimes I can use this time very effectively without my students noticing, sometimes i just let them express and feel free which I think is also cultivating thier minds, don' you think?
I don't know if I'm doing it rightly, but my feeling is that in one way or another I'm fostering their inner world.
Thanks,
Vicky
Hi Macarena
ReplyDeleteAs you said, one of the most important and crucial aspects we should consider when teaching is the goals we establish as the main aims of our teaching in a specific course. However, we as teachers are so worried by other things related to the “form” of our teaching that sometimes we blindly do not see or realize what is really worth to be done. What I mean by this is that we are so pressed by timing that sometimes we badly finish everything on time, but we have not accomplished the main purpose of a teacher which is to make our students learn meaningfully and give them real “understanding”. It is a vicious cycle which comprehends the authorities, teachers, and obviously the victims who are the students. It is not only our job to perform properly, but also the clarity of the authorities that different variables must be taken into account.
Macarena:
ReplyDeleteUndoubtedly, teachers should make choices and frame priorities. Unfortunately, referring to Chilean education, planning based on big ideas and clear goals is not a task which teachers are very concerned about. I carried out a survey in 2005 to teachers of public school. It showed that most of them do not plan their classes. One of the main reasons is that they do not have time to do so. They work many hours in the classroom so there is little time for planning. Another reason is that they do not feel motivated to do it because their salaries are not good enough.
Hi Maca,
ReplyDeleteTeaching....teaching what is it?? I think you mention something really essential when talking about education. Because most teachers believe that teaching is making their students learn certain grammatical rules, or math formulas and then if they use them correctly when completing exercises that's all- they've learned-. As we've been discussing, teaching is much more than asking our students to repeat things, they need to really understand a specific content using different strategies guided by the teacher, which in the end makes a big difference. So, let's concentrate on working seriosly with our students and then we'll make a difference, I'm sure our students will notice it.
Dear Maca,
ReplyDeleteAs you said, the first thing is to set the aims or goals, but they have to be consistent with the kind of students we have. We cannot establish goals that will only be reached in our minds and will only bring frustration and uncertainty to our class. Let's now consider the fact that we are able to go with our students in the process, providing the tools the might need to accomplish the objectives settled.
Hi Maca,
ReplyDeletePlanning is certainly a key for framing effective lessons. The point is we do not devote enough time to our lesson plans, as we would like to. Yet, it is a fact that our understanding of how to prepare a lesson and how to convey the aims are now somehow easier after these two years of intense training.
However, it is still a matter of constant revision and reflection how well we are reaching what we planned (no matter how it was done)... in / on / about action as we called it.
The most important thing we have bear in mind is our students and the challenges of every day, in order to improve their learning through better and motivating classes.