Hope is not a strategy, but backward design is

This week’s readings dipped into three topics in education that dovetail nicely into one another, namely inquiry (“Teaching So It Matters,” Smith and Wilhelm, 2006): culturally relevant pedagogy (Ladson-Billings, “But That’s Just Good Teaching!” 1995); and designing for understanding (Wiggins and McTighe, Understanding by Design, 2006). Smith and Wilhelm’s theory about inquiry is not dissimilar to Wiggins and McTighe’s philosophy about backward design.

In some ways, Smith and Wilhelm’s view seems to blend Wiggins and McTighe’s point of view with Ladson-Billings’ approach to culturally relevant pedagogy: start with a big essential question, identity real-world practice that involves making meaning (to explore that question), and plan backward to determine what content, activities, and the like are needed to build upon students’ current abilities such that students can acquire the required knowledge and skills to respond to that question (or questions).

I am sure we were intended to see connections like this among the readings because they were all assigned to be read in the same week. That said, of the three, what really jumped out at me from a practical sense is the Wiggins-McTighe approach to backward design. Why? Because backward design starts with explicit definition of the goal(s). Which I appreciate. In the business world--my old haunt before coming to education--any legitimate marketing or strategic plan starts with the end goals. When I managed preschool toys at Target, for example, I had to define my goals (market share, sales, focus brands, key items) and know my audience before drafting my business plan. Then, from the goals I had big questions to answer: what would it mean for my Hasbro line if I pushed heavy on Fisher-Price’s Little People brand? What would doing so mean for my customer? Everything I subsequently did was focused on achieving those goals for that audience; any activities unrelated to those goals were never executed because it made no sense to do them.

Similarly, following the Wiggins-McTighe approach in education, teaching--from the curriculum overall to the unit to the lesson-- starts with clarifying the learning goals. Just as I developed my business plans based on those goals, in education it makes sense that from the goals we determine the essential questions to be considered and understandings desired, and the content and pedagogy that align best to those goals.

In business, we used the adage “hope is not a strategy,” which means that without goals and a well-defined plan geared to achieve those goals, we get nowhere. We could not simply hope for success. Wiggins and McTighe’s reference to teaching by hope (rather than what is desired, i.e., teaching by design) reminded me of that adage, and for good reason: it’s not enough to hope we inspire and empower our students to be 21st century learners and doers. We have to set our goals, ask the right questions, and design, build, and execute the learning plan from there.