Understanding
by Design: Wilderness Philosophy
Background:
Positives
- Excitement about course, ENED 4601—Wilderness Philosophy
- Colleague on sabbatical…new opportunity!
Challenges
- New responsibilities…Undergraduate Coordinator
- EdD…You all get this!
Important early considerations from the text:
- Early in the text, Understanding by Design, the
authors warn us that UbD is not a prescriptive program, but rather…a way of thinking more purposefully and carefully about the nature
of any design that has understanding as a goal. Rather than offering a step-by-step
guide to follow—something that is antithetical to good design, whether in
education or in architecture—the book provides a conceptual framework, many
entry points, a design template, various tools and methods, and an accompanying
set of design standards. (p.7) I liked the idea of teachers
as designers as presented in Chapter One…and
I felt that I had good ideas and enthusiasm to create something meaningful…but
had I done that? i.e. was I in the process of doing
that with my Wilderness Philosophy class?
Ø
Ok, license to interpret and use my own ideas
and judgment!
- Wiggins and McTighe warn
us that the backward design approach may seem awkward and time consuming until we get the hang of
it…yet my discontent seemed like a great opportunity for me to experiment.
- Right from the start of my reading in Wiggins and
McTighe I used the example of my Wilderness Philosophy
as a metric—i.e. I compared my
current actions against the ideas I was exploring in the text.