Good lesson planning is the key to delivering effective educational experiences at all levels and ages. You may have heard that backward design is a great tool to help develop purposeful lessons. But what exactly is backward design? How can we employ it effectively to create meaningful and intentional learning opportunities? And how does it differ from traditional design?
BACKWARD DESIGN
Backward design is best understood as an instructional approach and educational planning tool that educators can use to create pedagogically sound curricula, courses, modules, and lessons. Backward design is a three-step process.
Step One
The first step is to define your overarching learning objective as the instructor and identify the learning outcomes for students in the lesson. The terms objectives and outcomes are often used interchangeably but are not synonymous.
Think about the objective as the goal of a lesson from the instructor’s perspective. What are you, the teacher, trying to achieve with the learning experience you are developing?
Outcomes, on the other hand, should be thought of from the learner’s perspective. They identify what students will be able to know, understand, apply, do, and/or think critically about after the lesson.
A great framework to call on when formulating your learning objectives and outcomes is Bloom’s Taxonomy. Bloom’s Taxonomy, developed by educational psychologist Benjamin Bloom, postulates six categories of skills or abilities:
Knowledge Remembering information
Comprehension Understanding information
Application Applying knowledge to situations
Analysis Analyzing parts and relationships
Synthesis Creating something new
Evaluation Making judgements
Bloom’s Taxonomy has become essential to education because it provides a structure and template for defining the scope of what learners should achieve after engagement with a given learning activity.
Step Two
Next, backward design calls on instructors to plan and choose how to assess whether learners have accomplished the learning outcomes. Before, during, and after your lesson, you can assess student understanding to gauge their level of understanding and ultimately the effectiveness of the lesson. Consider using:
• Diagnostic assessments to check prior knowledge to help shape your lessons.
• Formative assessments to check how well students are grasping the ideas, skills, and concepts being taught.
• Summative assessments to actually record an official grade and formally test students’ knowledge and understanding at the end of a learning experience.
Step Three
Finally, plan and choose the content, material, and learning activities necessary to support learners in achieving those learning outcomes. In other words, begin to select what will be taught and how it will be taught during the lesson.
BACKWARD DESIGN IN ACTION: An Example
Imagine you are creating a lesson on Non-Verbal Communication, and you are going to employ backward design to help you do so.
First: Draft your learning objective and the student’s learning outcomes.
Learning Objective
• Learners will become more proficient in non-verbal communication.
Learning Outcomes
Learners will be able to:
• Describe four types of non-verbal communication.
• Demonstrate the effective use of non-verbal communication.
• Imagine four instances where non-verbal communication would be effective in your desired professional field.
Second: Choose your methods of assessment pertaining to these outcomes:
• After learning about different types of non-verbal communication, learners will be tasked with an exit card to describe four types of non-verbal communication.
• Students will be put into groups of three. Two students will be given a mock conversation and will weave in four effective uses of nonverbal communication. The student watching will observe the nonverbal cues and identify them.
Third: Structure the learning material and activities.
• Lecture on the key types of non-verbal communication.
• Use videos and clips to engage students.
• Next, group students to practise different types and observe each other.
• Have a class discussion about the ways non-verbal communication can be effectively used in different instances.
• Finally, have students complete the exit card describing four forms of non-verbal communication.
TRADITIONAL DESIGN
Traditional design in education is an approach to instruction that has mostly fallen out of favour due to the effectiveness of backward design. Nevertheless, traditional design, in the right environment, with the right learners and right instructors, can also help to facilitate effective learning.
Traditional design essentially works to structure planning by starting with the material to be covered as in this sequence:
1. What topics and content will be covered through the activity?
2. How will the content and information be delivered?
3. How will success and knowledge gained be assessed?
SUMMARY
Backward design is an effective planning tool that can help you design a curriculum from broad concepts all the way down to lessons and individual learning experiences. It comprises three simple steps that act as guide for your educational preparation. If you are ever stuck when trying to create engaging lessons, use backward design as a template.
References
Bloom, B.S. (1956). Taxonomy of educational objectives: The classification of educational goals. New York, NY: Longmans, Green.
Wiggins, G. P., & McTighe, J. (2005). Understanding by design (2nd ed.). Pearson.
ABOUT THE AUTHOR
William Horton
William Horton has a B.A. in Indigenous Studies, a Bachelor of Education, and a Master of Education. He is currently the Manager of Educational Support and Digital Innovation (ESDI) with the Faculty of Health Sciences and Wellness at Humber Polytechnic. William has written on education and culture for many different outlets including EdCan and The Good Men Project.
This article is featured in Canadian Teacher Magazine’s Winter 2025 issue.
