Scarlett Shi
Welcome to my design universe!
Key Words: backward design, instructional design
Duration: Sep 2020 - Dec 2020
My Role: Instructional Designer, Researcher
Nature: Individual Project
The New World Explorers
What is this Project for?
This project is aimed to help student to understand why people have ventured into unexplored places to discover new lands throughout world history by using scientifically based principles and practical strategies, i.e. the backward design model. It developed learner models and educational goals based on detailed task analysis of the knowledge, skills, and dispositions. With the Alignment of the instructional program and its valid assessment with learners and goals, and planned evaluation research to determine fidelity of educational implementation and efficacy of impact.
Big Ideas
Authentic performance task
Framing learning objectives in real-world context not only enhances motivation but also improves knowledge transfer.
Self-assessment
Effective self-assessment should not only provide enough opportunities for learners to reflect, but also monitor and improve their learning process.
Interactive & supportive Learning Environments
An interactive and supportive learning enviornment enable each student has the equal opportunity to participate in class activities and teacher can provide personalized feedback.
Design Phases
Step 1: Learners in Context - Learners Profile
Grade Level: 5th Grade School Type: Weil PreK-5 Public School at Pittsburgh
Class Size: 10 students
Unit overview: 15 classes, 40min/class, twice a week
Motivation Level: Low motivation in learning history
Development Goals Goal Specification
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Go beyond the factual knowledge
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Social & Emotional Support
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Teamwork
Prior Knowledge
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Basic knowledge of American, Pennsylvania history and the world map
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Have the concepts of chronology and time
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Still in the process of building historical thinking
Individual Differences
Think out loud, short concentration period, expressive and talkative
Step 2: Goal Specification
Step 3 & 4: Assessment & Instruction
Step 5: Evaluation Research
Research Question(s)
Will the self-assessment (checklist) impact students’ performance?
Method
Controlled experiment
Hypotheses
Students who do the structured checklist self-assessment have a higher achievement than those who do the verbal recordings in the control group.
Experimental design
The experiment will be designed for all the students in the class. The independent variable will be whether students use a checklist to do the self-assessment or not. The treatment group will do the structured self-assessment checklist after each class, while the control group would do a verbal reflection recording asking about what they learned and the muddiest point. The dependent variable will be the performance in the final project. A possible covariate would be students’ individual differences, i.e., expressiveness.
Reflection
How my design be practically applicable and user-friendly for an educator?
In the learners in context phase, I demonstrated the learner profiles with the evidence-based research. I thoroughly explained the grade level, motivation level, prior knowledge level, developmental level, and individual differences. Teachers or educators can have a clear and intuitive understanding of the targeted learners.
In the goals section, based on the particular age group, the prior knowledge level, and the individual differences, the project's learning goals involve specifying the knowledge, skill, and disposition goals at the cognitive and metacognitive levels. I use different tables to differentiate different learning goals and provided examples to help future teachers or educators better understand the goals.
For the assessment section, I use different colors representing the alignment and provide all the possible assessment types, rubrics and criteria, and sample assessments to facilitate practicality.
In the instruction section, I demonstrated each step in detail and provided complete sample lessons for teachers to practice in a real-world context.
In the evaluation section, I provided the possible research plan, including active ingredients, research question, experiment design, method and hypotheses. Teachers and educators can use my design in a real-world context, and it would be practically applicable and easy to read for teachers.