constructive alignment

Constructive Alignment

Alice: Would you tell me, please, which way I ought to go from here?

The Cat: That depends a good deal on where you want to get to.

Alice: I don't much care where.

The Cat: Then it doesn't much matter which way you go.

Your doctor tells you to lose weight in a month.

He gives you indications of what to do

What do you expect him to tell you?

Think about it

how much you have to lose

Outcomes

how he will tell when you get there

Assessment

how to lose weight

The process

Outcomes

Assessment Processes

Losing weight:

Outcomes

Assessment Processes

Ideal Alignment

‘Constructive Alignment is an example of outcomes based education (OBE)…’

www.johnbiggs.com.au/constructivealignment.htm

Biggs, J.B. (2003). Teaching for quality learning at university. Buckingham: Open University Press/Society for Research into Higher Education. (Second edition)

Spady, W. (1994). Outcome-based education: Critical issues and answers. Arlington, VA: American Association of School Administrators.

Spady, W. (1998). Paradigm lost: Reclaiming America’s educational future. Arlington, VA: American Association of School Administrators.

References

THE “EDUCENTRIC ICEBERG”

Information Age challenges

With a BUREAUCRATIC AGE CULTURE

And an INDUSTRIAL AGE DELIVERY SYSTEM

Governed by an AGRARIAN AGE CALENDAR

And a FEUDAL AGE AGENDA

Adapted from Spady (2002) Princ Leader Jan02:57

Here is Edward Bear coming downstairs now Bump, Bump

On the back of his head, Behind Christopher Robin.It is, as far as he knows, The only way of Coming

downstairs, But sometimes he feels,That there is another way, If only he could stop

Bumping For a moment and

Think of it.

(Winnie-the-Pooh by Christopher Milne)

New ideas aren't always readily accepted

What is the first thing that teachers think about when planning their teaching?

PROGRAMME /CONTENT

Teacher Aims Learning activity

Assessment

Alignment?

Teacher Aims Learning activity

Assessment

Student Aims? Learning activity

Assessment

Alignment?

Learned helplessness

Teacher - knows all- is active

Student- passive

Student- passive

Student- passive

1. Starting with clarifying the outcomes that students are to achieve

2. Then organising the curriculum, instruction, and assessment

Designing backwards in curriculum development

1. Do we know where we are going to ? • Learning outcomes-aims and objectives

2. How are we going to get there ?• Teaching and learning activities that facilitate the

attainment of such outcomes

3. How do we know that we are there ?• Assessment of the learning outcomes• Motivation for learning and a measure of learning

effectiveness

What is Outcome-based Learning ?

3. Learning Activities

2. Learning Assessments

Learning Activities: “Connecting Spokes”

1. Learning Objectives

Support

Constructive Alignment (Biggs)

Ensuring learning outcomes

Desired Learning Outcomes

Assessment Methods

Teaching & Learning Activities

1.Clarity of focus/outcomes

2.Designing Backwards

3.Consistent high expectations of success

4. Expanded opportunity

4 basic principles of OBE

Outcome statements are broad statements of key learning

achievement Articulate performance of students in terms of

action verbs sometimes also specify the level of performance

Good ‘Outcome statements’

Learning outcomes encompass:

a) What students should know/understand

b) What students should be able to do

c) What students should be like

Learning outcomes

Implementation Process

1) Think carefully about: overall goal of course

2) Operationalize these goals: and express them as intended learning outcomes

3) Choose carefully the form(s) of examination

4) Choose carefully the form(s) of teaching

alignment

operationalization

Aligning Course Design Components

‘….researchers have found that lack of excellence in [student learning is] caused, not so much by ineffective teaching, but by misalignment between what instructors intend to teach, what they actually teach, and what they test…’

S.A. Cohen, Instructional Alignment: Searching for a Magic Bullet

Content vs. OutcomeFocus on Content

What to eat in the diet

What topics to teach

Focus on outcome

What the dieter will achieve

Appropriate level of

understanding of knowledge

Capacity to perform Affective attributes

Learning is a change in understanding and behavior that result from encountering new experiences

(Spady 2001:18)

Learning is about what the they do, not what the teachers do

(Biggs

Emphasis on Learning

A design for teaching calculated to encourage deep engagement

(Biggs, 2003)

Definition

Deep Learning An intention to understand material by

relating ideas to previous knowledge and experience

Searching for patterns and underlying principles

Seeking evidence and relating it to conclusions

Principles:teaching for quality learning

1. Education is about conceptual change not just the acquisition of knowledge (deep vs. surface approaches to learning)

2. Teaching for conceptual change ( what the teacher teaches vs. what the student learns )

3. Understanding knowledge is key (declarative vs.

functioning) Biggs’ (2003)

Alignment refers to what the teacher does: set up a learning environment …

that supports learning activities …

that are appropriate to achieving the desired learning outcomes

Constructive alignment

Understanding the curriculum

Constructive alignment The constructive aspect refers to what the

learner does: construct meaning through relevant

learning activities

JOHN BIGGS. Teaching for quality learning at university (2003)

Quality programme design

Outcome-Based Education (Spady)

Constructive Alignment (Biggs)

PRODUCT of

learningPROCESS

of learning

Aligning teaching &

learning

Aligning assessment

Piaget

1 Pre-structural: here students are simply acquiring bits of unconnected information, which have no organisation and make no sense.

2 Unistructural: simple and obvious connections are made, but their significance is not grasped.

Biggs’ SOLO TaxonomyStructure of the Observed Learning Outcome

Have the student do something, and then measure product and/or process

3 Multistructural: a number of connections may be made, but the meta-connections between them are missed, as is their significance for the whole.

4 Relational level: the student is now able to appreciate the significance of the parts in relation to the whole.

Biggs SOLO TaxonomyStructure of the Observed Learning Outcome

Biggs SOLO TaxonomyStructure of the Observed Learning Outcome

5 At the extended abstract level, the student is making connections not only within the given subject area, but also beyond it, able to generalise and transfer the principles and ideas underlying the specific instance.

Puss in Boots

Tiger, Tiger, Burning Bright

William Blake

T. S. Eliot

Andrew Lloyd Webber

Cat’s Eyes

Cat O’Nine Tails

Nine Lives

Le Chat Noir

Cools Cat

Top Cat

Owl and the Pussycat

The SOLO Taxonomy with sample verbs indicating levels of understanding

Competence

Prestructural Unistructural Multistructural Relational Extended Abstract Slide extracted from presentation of Biggs and Tang, 2006

one relevant several relevant integrated into generalized to aspect independent aspects a structure new domain

IdentifyNameFollow simple procedure

CombineDescribeEnumeratePerform serial skillsList

AnalyzeApplyArgueCompare/ contrastCriticizeExplain causesRelateJustify

CreateFormulateGenerateHypothesizeReflectTheorize

Incompetence

FailIncompetentMisses point

. . . .

Education must enable a man to become moreefficient, to achieve with increasing facility the legitimate goals of his life.

Martin L. King Jr 1948, Morehouse College

In conclusion:

Prepared and presented

ByT.B.Harden

Cert. Ed. B.Ed. (Hons.) MA (London)

tonyharden@hotmail.comwww.windsor.edu.mx