Winner of a 1999 EdPress Distinguished Achievement Award

What is understanding and how does it differ from knowing? What do we want students to understand and be able to do? What enduring knowledge is worth understanding? How will we know that students truly understand and can apply knowledge in a meaningful way? How can we design our courses and units to emphasize understanding and "uncoverage" rather than "coverage"?

Understanding by Design explores these questions and provides practical solutions for the teacher-designer. The book opens by analyzing the logic of backward design as an alternative to coverage and activity-oriented plans. Though backward from habit, this approach brings more focus and coherence to instruction. The text proposes a multifaceted approach, with the six "facets" of understanding. The facets combine with backward design to provide a powerful, practical framework for designing curriculum, assessment, and instruction.

The highly anticipated second edition of Understanding by Design poses the core, essential questions of understanding and design, and provides readers with practical solutions for the teacher-designer.  The book opens by analyzing the logic of backward design as an alternative to coverage and activity-oriented plans.  Though backward from habit, this approach brings more focus and coherence to instruction.  The book proposes a multifaceted approach, with the six “facets” of understanding.  The facets combine with backward design to provide a powerful, expanded array of practical tools and strategies for designing curriculum, instruction, and assessments that lead students at all grade levels to genuine understanding.  The second edition, a refined work, has been thoroughly and extensively revised, updated, and expanded, including improvement of the UbD Template, the key terms of UbD, dozens of worksheets, and some of the larger concepts. The authors have successfully put together a text that demonstrates what best practice in the design of learning looks like, enhancing for its audience their capability for creating more engaging and effective learning, whether the student is a third grader, a college freshman, or a faculty member.

List of Figures.

Preface.

Acknowledgements.

Introduction.

1.   Backward Design.

2.   Understanding Understanding.

3.   Gaining Clarity on Our Goals.

4.   The Six Facets of Understanding.

5.   Essential Questions: Doorways to Understanding.

6.   Crafting Understandings.

7.   Thinking like an Assessor.

8.   Criteria and Validity.

9.   Planning for Learning.

10. Teaching for Understanding.

11. The Design Process.

12. The Big Picture: UbD as Curriculum Framework.

13. "Yes, but..."

Afterword: Getting Started.

Appendix: Sample 6-Page Template.

Endnotes.

Glossary.

Bibliography.

Index.

About the Authors.