I. Course Title: Basic Instructional Design and Assessment
II. Course Number: EDUC 303
III. Credit Hours: 3 credits
IV. Prerequisites: 2.5 or higher GPA
V. Course Description:
Engaging all students and ensuring their progress requires teachers to make strategic
and well-informed decisions about design and assessment before, during, and after
implementation. This course introduces prospective teachers to the science and craft
of planning instruction that engages students in critical thinking about big ideas,
prepares them for the complex challenges of the world beyond the classroom, and guides
them to become confident and independent learners.
VI. Detailed Description of Content of the Course:
Instruction that engages all elementary students and ensures their progress requires
strategic decisions about design and assessment before, during, and after implementation.
Effective teachers know how to carefully match methods and practices to their learners’
prior knowledge, interests, and needs as well as the cognitive demands of the content.
These choices must be guided by an understanding of child development, the science
of learning, knowledge of state and national standards, and research on what structures
and practices have been demonstrated to be effective. Prospective teachers will learn
how to use design and assessment to create learning experiences that engage their
students in critical thinking about big ideas, prepare them for the complex challenges
of the world beyond the classroom, and guide them to become confident and independent
learners.
VI. Detailed Description of Conduct of Course:
Course readings (including research literature), lectures, class discussions, demonstration
videos, and exemplar learning designs will introduce students to key concepts of the
design process. Practice activities, group work, and simulations on lesson planning,
analyzing and creating assessments, and using data to evaluate instruction and plan
for differentiation allow students to develop conceptual understanding of effective
design. Micro-teaching or field experiences will be used to support application and
synthesis of course objectives in practical contexts.
VII. Goals and Objectives of the Course:
- Explain frameworks for designing instruction to include backward design and Universal
Design for Learning (UDL), as well as taxonomies for organizing learning outcomes,
and how teachers use them to analyze standards and shape instructional designs that
sustain intellectual curiosity, promote problem-solving, integrate multiple disciplines,
and develop self-directed learners.
- Define key concepts and structures for planning instruction: state and national standards,
curriculum, goal, objective, outcome, assessment, differentiation, enrichment, scaffolding,
and zone of proximal development.
- Explain and analyze a variety of explicit and constructivist methods of instruction
and review research on how and when to use such practices effectively to include designs
that leverage instructional technologies or are delivered in flipped, blended, online,
or personalized environments.
- Reflect critically on how design and assessment decisions are connected to issues
of access, equity, and inclusivity for learners of diverse strengths, talents, abilities,
experiences, cultures, races, and linguistic backgrounds.
- Analyze a variety of informal and formal curriculum-based assessments for what purposes
they serve and how they align to learning outcomes, measure student understanding
or learning, meet expectations for fairness and validity, and are made accessible
to all learners.
- Assess learners’ understanding and progress before, during, and after instruction
using multiple informal and formal tools, including practices for engaging learners
in reflection and self-assessment.
- Use simulated or field assessment data to plan for enrichment or effective scaffolding
(differentiation), to monitor learners’ understanding while teaching and adjust appropriately,
and to evaluate and document effectiveness of instruction.
- Create and align the key components of effective designs to include learning outcomes/objectives,
assessment evidence, key vocabulary, and procedures across a variety of instructional
methods and at varying scales (i.e., by mini-lesson, lesson, concept, unit, or skill
progressions).
- Integrate knowledge of children’s development (physical, cognitive, emotional and
social), how the brain learns (particularly metacognition, memory, intensity and spacing
of rehearsal, and cognitive load), and research on effective practices to plan instruction
that is accessible and effective for all students.
- Micro-teach in simulated or field contexts, reflect on feedback, and revise lesson
plans to improve instruction.
VIII. Assessment Measures:
Students will be assessed in multiple ways. These may include, but are not limited
to:
- Quizzes, tests, or exams
- Presentations
- Written responses to course readings
- Journals or learning logs
- Oral or written analyses of lesson plans, unit designs, assessment tools, assessment
data, teaching videos, or research literature on effective methods
- Lesson plans
- Interdisciplinary unit sketch
- Micro-teaching or field experience and subsequent reflections
Review and Approval
August 2020