Planning Teaching: Constructive Alignment

Contributed by:

Jonathan James Mon, Jan 10, 2022 04:59 PM UTC

A good teaching system aligns teaching method and assessment to the learning activities stated in the objectives so that all aspects of this system are IN ACCORD in supporting appropriate student learning.

Learning outcomes are statements of what is expected that the student will be able to do as a result of a learning activity.

Learning outcomes are an explicit description of what a learner should know, understand, and be able to do as a result of learning

1. Planning Teaching: Constructive
 For teaching to be effective, two
ingredients are needed at the outset:
 Careful planning and Constructive
Alignment.
 The former will be especially reliant on
‘SMART’ learning outcomes and the latter
on connectivity between strategies for
LTA.

2. Constructive Alignment
 ‘A good teaching system aligns
teaching method and assessment to
the learning activities stated in the
objectives so that all aspects of this
system are IN ACCORD in supporting
appropriate student learning’.
(Seigel, 2004)
 See following diagram:

3. Constructive alignment:
the “golden triangle”
Learning
Outcomes
Teaching
and Learning Assessment
Activity

4. Definition:
 ‘Learning outcomes are statements of what is
expected that the student will be able to do as
a result of a learning activity’ (Jenkins and
Unwin, 2001).
 ‘Learning outcomes are an explicit description
of what a learner should know, understand and
be able to do as a result of learning’ (Bingham,
1999)

5. • Clear expectations are set for students
• Teaching has a specific focus
• Appropriate matching strategies for
teaching and assessment are chosen
• Helps to keep teaching focused on
student learning
• Student-centred learning is developed

6. Learning Outcomes should be
 Specific
 Measurable
 Achievable
 Realistic
 Timed
 These have major implications for
planning. However….

7. Using a Framework
 Learning outcomes can NOT be written
in a vacuum.
 A framework is needed within which to
develop them.
 Bloom’s Taxonomy of Educational
Objectives provides this.
 It is depicted diagrammatically thus:

8. Linking learning outcomes to levels
Hierarchy of learning e.g. Bloom’s six
categories of cognitive learning:
knowledge
Higher learning levels

 comprehension
 application
 analysis
 synthesis
 evaluation

9. Bloom’s Taxonomy of Educational
Objectives (1956)
Synthesis
Evaluation
Analysis
Application
Understanding
Knowledge

10. Bloom’s Levels
Cognitive Domain
6. Evaluation
Making judgement about value against criteria of what has been
learnt.
5. Synthesis
Combining together to make a coherent whole. Involves logical
deduction, creativity, discovery of patterns, structure.
4. Analysis
Breaking into component parts, listing elements, establishing the
relationship between them. One infers, compares, contrasts and
categorises.
3. Application
Using something in a specific manner, experimenting, practising,
testing. Applying general principles or theory to practice.

11. Bloom continued
2. Comprehension
Grasping meaning, assimilating, communicating in one’s own words.
1. Knowledge
Recall of factual information, being able to remember, label or
recognise something.
Follow up: examine with a colleague the learning outcomes
for one of your modules.
●At which levels of the Taxonomy are they located?
●Are your action words found in the handout given?
●Is there alignment with the assessment strategies?

12. Other Essentials of
 Decisions about:

How previous content will be built on: high selectivity

KEY topics or points (Land’s ‘threshold concepts’)

How much time to allocate to each

Strategies for learning (PAR and BEM)

Key questions that will be asked

How explanations will be structured

How stimulus variation will be employed

How student attention will be optimised
 What will make the learning inclusive

Types of learners (multi-sensory teaching)

13. ‘PAR’ and ‘BEM’
 Present, Apply, Review (PAR)
 Beginning, End and Middle Principle (BEM)
 The BEM (beginning – end – middle) principle
states that the beginnings and endings of
presented content are more readily remembered
than content in the middle. (The Primacy Effect)
 Thus, the first 10-12 minutes and the last 8-10
minutes of a presentation (The Recency Effect)
are optimum periods for learning.
 What are the implications of this?

14. The ‘PAR’ Model (Petty)
 Present content
 Apply content
 Review content
 Associated skills are:
 Set Induction and Closure (P)
 Effective Questioning/active learning (A)
 Effective assessment strategies (R)

15. ‘Well begun is half done’
 Set Induction and Closure:
 Cognitive Set: an overview of learning
 Perceptual Set: how one is perceived
 Social Set: creating a social environment for
learning
 Motivational Set: this is worth doing
 Cognitive, social and motivational closure
 Examples of strategies for cognitive set are:

Advanced organisers, concept maps, ‘fishbones’

16.  This takes two forms:

Transitional closure

Summative closure

Making each student-centred is crucial to
successful learning and teaching.

Closure ensures that learning is formatively
assessed.

It should be undertaken by students

It should be explicit and carefully
integrated.

17. SCL has occurred when:
 Students realise that their learning is
incomplete
 They have engaged in self-assessment
facilitated by their tutors
 They make decisions about moving forward,
accepting personal responsibility for
learning
 They are beginning to bridge the gap
between surface and deep learning

18.  What resources are needed to complete this?
 How much do I already know?
 What do I still need to find out?
 Can this be prioritised?
 What will help fill gaps?
 What is my action plan/time plan?
 How might I build on/IMPROVE previous work?
 Why is this topic important?
 What links are there between theory and
practice?

19. Surface Learning encouraged
 Recall rather than application and analysis etc.
 Anxiety creating assessments (too many/too difficult)
 Poorly timed assessments: end-loading
 Excessive amounts of material/absence of ‘threshold
concepts’
 Poor or absent feedback/formative feedback
 Lack of independence in studying/ no peer learning
 Lack of interest in and background knowledge of subject
matter
 Previous experiences of educational settings that
encourage these approaches
 Few, if any, opportunities for self-assessment

20. Deep Learning is fostered by:
 Active and long-term engagement with tasks
 Self-assessment of learning
 Stimulating and considerate teaching through which
relevance and meaning are clarified and emphasised
 Clearly stated academic expectations
 Opportunities to exercise reasonable choice in the
method and content of study
 Interest in and background knowledge of the subject
matter
 Previous experiences of educational settings that
encourage these approaches
(See: Ramsden, P (1992), Learning to Teach in Higher
Education’)

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