It’s easy to switch into automatic pilot mode when it comes to planning a course. It goes something like this: (1) we look at the topic of the course we’re ...

One of the greatest challenges of planning a course for the first time, or making substantial revisions, is what content to cover. Before my introduction to the principles of backward design, I would ...

Educators may now be familiar with the Accreditation Council for Graduate Medical Education’s (ACGME) recognition of competency-based medical education through their introduction of Milestones for ...

Preface; Acknowledgments; Introduction; Backward Design; Understanding Understanding; Gaining Clarity on Our Goals; The Six Facets of Understanding; Essential Questions: Doorways to Understanding; ...

High school Principal Pete Steedman begins every school year by telling his staff to read an article by Grant Wiggins titled, “The Futility of Trying to Teach Everything of Importance.” “I love what ...

Ashley Wiersma is a doctoral c andidate in the department of history at Michigan State University. You can follow her on twitter at @throughthe_veil. “A synthesis of cognitive research endorses the ...