Education 303

I. Course Title: Basic Instructional Design and Assessment

II. Course Number: EDUC 303

III. Credit Hours: 3 credits

IV. Prerequisites: 2.5 or higher GPA

V. Course Description: 

Engaging all students and ensuring their progress requires teachers to make strategic and well-informed decisions about design and assessment before, during, and after implementation.  This course introduces prospective teachers to the science and craft of planning instruction that engages students in critical thinking about big ideas, prepares them for the complex challenges of the world beyond the classroom, and guides them to become confident and independent learners.

VI. Detailed Description of Content of the Course:

Instruction that engages all elementary students and ensures their progress requires strategic decisions about design and assessment before, during, and after implementation.  Effective teachers know how to carefully match methods and practices to their learners’ prior knowledge, interests, and needs as well as the cognitive demands of the content.  These choices must be guided by an understanding of child development, the science of learning, knowledge of state and national standards, and research on what structures and practices have been demonstrated to be effective. Prospective teachers will learn how to use design and assessment to create learning experiences that engage their students in critical thinking about big ideas, prepare them for the complex challenges of the world beyond the classroom, and guide them to become confident and independent learners.  

VI. Detailed Description of Conduct of Course:

Course readings (including research literature), lectures, class discussions, demonstration videos, and exemplar learning designs will introduce students to key concepts of the design process.  Practice activities, group work, and simulations on lesson planning, analyzing and creating assessments, and using data to evaluate instruction and plan for differentiation allow students to develop conceptual understanding of effective design.  Micro-teaching or field experiences will be used to support application and synthesis of course objectives in practical contexts.

VII. Goals and Objectives of the Course:

  1. Explain frameworks for designing instruction to include backward design and Universal Design for Learning (UDL), as well as taxonomies for organizing learning outcomes, and how teachers use them to analyze standards and shape instructional designs that sustain intellectual curiosity, promote problem-solving, integrate multiple disciplines, and develop self-directed learners.
  2. Define key concepts and structures for planning instruction: state and national standards, curriculum, goal, objective, outcome, assessment, differentiation, enrichment, scaffolding, and zone of proximal development.
  3. Explain and analyze a variety of explicit and constructivist methods of instruction and review research on how and when to use such practices effectively to include designs that leverage instructional technologies or are delivered in flipped, blended, online, or personalized environments.
  4. Reflect critically on how design and assessment decisions are connected to issues of access, equity, and inclusivity for learners of diverse strengths, talents, abilities, experiences, cultures, races, and linguistic backgrounds.
  5. Analyze a variety of informal and formal curriculum-based assessments for what purposes they serve and how they align to learning outcomes, measure student understanding or learning, meet expectations for fairness and validity, and are made accessible to all learners.
  6. Assess learners’ understanding and progress before, during, and after instruction using multiple informal and formal tools, including practices for engaging learners in reflection and self-assessment. 
  7. Use simulated or field assessment data to plan for enrichment or effective scaffolding (differentiation), to monitor learners’ understanding while teaching and adjust appropriately, and to evaluate and document effectiveness of instruction.
  8. Create and align the key components of effective designs to include learning outcomes/objectives, assessment evidence, key vocabulary, and procedures across a variety of instructional methods and at varying scales (i.e., by mini-lesson, lesson, concept, unit, or skill progressions).  
  9. Integrate knowledge of children’s development (physical, cognitive, emotional and social), how the brain learns (particularly metacognition, memory, intensity and spacing of rehearsal, and cognitive load), and research on effective practices to plan instruction that is accessible and effective for all students.
  10. Micro-teach in simulated or field contexts, reflect on feedback, and revise lesson plans to improve instruction.

VIII. Assessment Measures:

Students will be assessed in multiple ways.  These may include, but are not limited to:

  1. Quizzes, tests, or exams
  2. Presentations
  3. Written responses to course readings
  4. Journals or learning logs
  5. Oral or written analyses of lesson plans, unit designs, assessment tools, assessment data, teaching videos, or research literature on effective methods
  6. Lesson plans
  7. Interdisciplinary unit sketch
  8. Micro-teaching or field experience and subsequent reflections

Review and Approval

August 2020