Are you in Canada? Click here to proceed to the HK Canada website.

For all other locations, click here to continue to the HK US website.

Human Kinetics Logo

Purchase Courses or Access Digital Products

If you are looking to purchase online videos, online courses or to access previously purchased digital products please press continue.

Mare Nostrum Logo

Purchase Print Products or eBooks

Human Kinetics print books and eBooks are now distributed by Mare Nostrum, throughout the UK, Europe, Africa and Middle East, delivered to you from their warehouse. Please visit our new UK website to purchase Human Kinetics printed or eBooks.

Feedback Icon Feedback Get $15 Off

FREE SHIPPING!

Free shipping for orders over $100

The backward-design approach to standards-based curriculum and instructional design process

This is an excerpt from National Health Education Standards-3rd Edition by SHAPE America - Society of Health and Physical Educators.

FIGURE 4.1 The link between standards, assessment, and instruction can be thought of as a continuous cycle.

Planning in a standards-based environment is often called backward design because it “begins with the end” in mind (Wiggins and McTighe, 2005). In a standards-based classroom, “the end” that teachers concentrate on involves providing evidence of student attainment of the standards and performance indicators (versus completion of a particular activity or project, chapters in a book, or a packaged curriculum). Authentic assessments, aligned with standards and performance indicators, are used to provide a clear picture of student learning and measures of instructional effectiveness. Therefore, health teachers are able to use their assessment data as feedback to continually improve the instructional process at every stage.

Backward design is a three-stage approach to designing curriculum by aligning standards, assessment, and instruction (see figure 4.2). The first stage in backward design is to use the standards and performance indicators to identify the health-related skills and concepts that students should know and be able to do. The second stage is to identify assessments that will provide evidence of students’ achievement of these skills and concepts. The third stage is to develop the instructional practices that will help students learn and master the identified health-related skills and concepts. Although these three stages outline an approach to the curriculum planning, it is important to understand that these stages are interconnected and that the process is not rigidly linear or step-by-step. Improvements will be made in the development and implementation at each stage in the process.

FIGURE 4.2 The backward-design approach to standards-based curriculum and instructional design process. Standards form the foundation for desired results; assessments provide evidence that students are meeting or not meeting the standards, which allows educators to shape curricula and instruction. Adapted by permission from G. Wiggins and J. McTighe, Understanding by Design, Expanded, 2nd ed. (Arlington, VA: ASCD. © 2005). All rights reserved.
FIGURE 4.2 The backward-design approach to standards-based curriculum and instructional design process. Standards form the foundation for desired results; assessments provide evidence that students are meeting or not meeting the standards, which allows educators to shape curricula and instruction.
Adapted by permission from G. Wiggins and J. McTighe, Understanding by Design, Expanded, 2nd ed. (Arlington, VA: ASCD. © 2005). All rights reserved.

More Excerpts From National Health Education Standards 3rd Edition