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Designing Assignments for Learning

The rapid shift to remote teaching and learning meant that many instructors reimagined their assessment practices. Whether adapting existing assignments or creatively designing new opportunities for their students to learn, instructors focused on helping students make meaning and demonstrate their learning outside of the traditional, face-to-face classroom setting. This resource distills the elements of assignment design that are important to carry forward as we continue to seek better ways of assessing learning and build on our innovative assignment designs.

On this page:

Rethinking traditional tests, quizzes, and exams.

• Examples from the Columbia University Classroom
• Tips for Designing Assignments for Learning

Reflect On Your Assignment Design

Connect with the ctl.

• Resources and References

Cite this resource: Columbia Center for Teaching and Learning (2021). Designing Assignments for Learning. Columbia University. Retrieved [today’s date] from https://ctl.columbia.edu/resources-and-technology/teaching-with-technology/teaching-online/designing-assignments/

Traditional assessments tend to reveal whether students can recognize, recall, or replicate what was learned out of context, and tend to focus on students providing correct responses (Wiggins, 1990). In contrast, authentic assignments, which are course assessments, engage students in higher order thinking, as they grapple with real or simulated challenges that help them prepare for their professional lives, and draw on the course knowledge learned and the skills acquired to create justifiable answers, performances or products (Wiggins, 1990). An authentic assessment provides opportunities for students to practice, consult resources, learn from feedback, and refine their performances and products accordingly (Wiggins 1990, 1998, 2014). 

Authentic assignments ask students to “do” the subject with an audience in mind and apply their learning in a new situation. Examples of authentic assignments include asking students to: 

• Write for a real audience (e.g., a memo, a policy brief, letter to the editor, a grant proposal, reports, building a website) and/or publication;
• Solve problem sets that have real world application; 
• Design projects that address a real world problem; 
• Engage in a community-partnered research project;
• Create an exhibit, performance, or conference presentation ;
• Compile and reflect on their work through a portfolio/e-portfolio.

Noteworthy elements of authentic designs are that instructors scaffold the assignment, and play an active role in preparing students for the tasks assigned, while students are intentionally asked to reflect on the process and product of their work thus building their metacognitive skills (Herrington and Oliver, 2000; Ashford-Rowe, Herrington and Brown, 2013; Frey, Schmitt, and Allen, 2012). 

It’s worth noting here that authentic assessments can initially be time consuming to design, implement, and grade. They are critiqued for being challenging to use across course contexts and for grading reliability issues (Maclellan, 2004). Despite these challenges, authentic assessments are recognized as beneficial to student learning (Svinicki, 2004) as they are learner-centered (Weimer, 2013), promote academic integrity (McLaughlin, L. and Ricevuto, 2021; Sotiriadou et al., 2019; Schroeder, 2021) and motivate students to learn (Ambrose et al., 2010). The Columbia Center for Teaching and Learning is always available to consult with faculty who are considering authentic assessment designs and to discuss challenges and affordances.   

Examples from the Columbia University Classroom 

Columbia instructors have experimented with alternative ways of assessing student learning from oral exams to technology-enhanced assignments. Below are a few examples of authentic assignments in various teaching contexts across Columbia University. 

• E-portfolios: Statia Cook shares her experiences with an ePorfolio assignment in her co-taught Frontiers of Science course (a submission to the Voices of Hybrid and Online Teaching and Learning initiative); CUIMC use of ePortfolios ;
• Case studies: Columbia instructors have engaged their students in authentic ways through case studies drawing on the Case Consortium at Columbia University. Read and watch a faculty spotlight to learn how Professor Mary Ann Price uses the case method to place pre-med students in real-life scenarios;
• Simulations: students at CUIMC engage in simulations to develop their professional skills in The Mary & Michael Jaharis Simulation Center in the Vagelos College of Physicians and Surgeons and the Helene Fuld Health Trust Simulation Center in the Columbia School of Nursing; 
• Experiential learning: instructors have drawn on New York City as a learning laboratory such as Barnard’s NYC as Lab webpage which highlights courses that engage students in NYC;
• Design projects that address real world problems: Yevgeniy Yesilevskiy on the Engineering design projects completed using lab kits during remote learning. Watch Dr. Yesilevskiy talk about his teaching and read the Columbia News article . 
• Writing assignments: Lia Marshall and her teaching associate Aparna Balasundaram reflect on their “non-disposable or renewable assignments” to prepare social work students for their professional lives as they write for a real audience; and Hannah Weaver spoke about a sandbox assignment used in her Core Literature Humanities course at the 2021 Celebration of Teaching and Learning Symposium . Watch Dr. Weaver share her experiences.  

​Tips for Designing Assignments for Learning

While designing an effective authentic assignment may seem like a daunting task, the following tips can be used as a starting point. See the Resources section for frameworks and tools that may be useful in this effort.  

Align the assignment with your course learning objectives 

Identify the kind of thinking that is important in your course, the knowledge students will apply, and the skills they will practice using through the assignment. What kind of thinking will students be asked to do for the assignment? What will students learn by completing this assignment? How will the assignment help students achieve the desired course learning outcomes? For more information on course learning objectives, see the CTL’s Course Design Essentials self-paced course and watch the video on Articulating Learning Objectives .  

Identify an authentic meaning-making task

For meaning-making to occur, students need to understand the relevance of the assignment to the course and beyond (Ambrose et al., 2010). To Bean (2011) a “meaning-making” or “meaning-constructing” task has two dimensions: 1) it presents students with an authentic disciplinary problem or asks students to formulate their own problems, both of which engage them in active critical thinking, and 2) the problem is placed in “a context that gives students a role or purpose, a targeted audience, and a genre.” (Bean, 2011: 97-98). 

An authentic task gives students a realistic challenge to grapple with, a role to take on that allows them to “rehearse for the complex ambiguities” of life, provides resources and supports to draw on, and requires students to justify their work and the process they used to inform their solution (Wiggins, 1990). Note that if students find an assignment interesting or relevant, they will see value in completing it. 

Consider the kind of activities in the real world that use the knowledge and skills that are the focus of your course. How is this knowledge and these skills applied to answer real-world questions to solve real-world problems? (Herrington et al., 2010: 22). What do professionals or academics in your discipline do on a regular basis? What does it mean to think like a biologist, statistician, historian, social scientist? How might your assignment ask students to draw on current events, issues, or problems that relate to the course and are of interest to them? How might your assignment tap into student motivation and engage them in the kinds of thinking they can apply to better understand the world around them? (Ambrose et al., 2010). 

Determine the evaluation criteria and create a rubric

To ensure equitable and consistent grading of assignments across students, make transparent the criteria you will use to evaluate student work. The criteria should focus on the knowledge and skills that are central to the assignment. Build on the criteria identified, create a rubric that makes explicit the expectations of deliverables and share this rubric with your students so they can use it as they work on the assignment. For more information on rubrics, see the CTL’s resource Incorporating Rubrics into Your Grading and Feedback Practices , and explore the Association of American Colleges & Universities VALUE Rubrics (Valid Assessment of Learning in Undergraduate Education). 

Build in metacognition

Ask students to reflect on what and how they learned from the assignment. Help students uncover personal relevance of the assignment, find intrinsic value in their work, and deepen their motivation by asking them to reflect on their process and their assignment deliverable. Sample prompts might include: what did you learn from this assignment? How might you draw on the knowledge and skills you used on this assignment in the future? See Ambrose et al., 2010 for more strategies that support motivation and the CTL’s resource on Metacognition ). 

Provide students with opportunities to practice

Design your assignment to be a learning experience and prepare students for success on the assignment. If students can reasonably expect to be successful on an assignment when they put in the required effort ,with the support and guidance of the instructor, they are more likely to engage in the behaviors necessary for learning (Ambrose et al., 2010). Ensure student success by actively teaching the knowledge and skills of the course (e.g., how to problem solve, how to write for a particular audience), modeling the desired thinking, and creating learning activities that build up to a graded assignment. Provide opportunities for students to practice using the knowledge and skills they will need for the assignment, whether through low-stakes in-class activities or homework activities that include opportunities to receive and incorporate formative feedback. For more information on providing feedback, see the CTL resource Feedback for Learning . 

Communicate about the assignment 

Share the purpose, task, audience, expectations, and criteria for the assignment. Students may have expectations about assessments and how they will be graded that is informed by their prior experiences completing high-stakes assessments, so be transparent. Tell your students why you are asking them to do this assignment, what skills they will be using, how it aligns with the course learning outcomes, and why it is relevant to their learning and their professional lives (i.e., how practitioners / professionals use the knowledge and skills in your course in real world contexts and for what purposes). Finally, verify that students understand what they need to do to complete the assignment. This can be done by asking students to respond to poll questions about different parts of the assignment, a “scavenger hunt” of the assignment instructions–giving students questions to answer about the assignment and having them work in small groups to answer the questions, or by having students share back what they think is expected of them.

Plan to iterate and to keep the focus on learning 

Draw on multiple sources of data to help make decisions about what changes are needed to the assignment, the assignment instructions, and/or rubric to ensure that it contributes to student learning. Explore assignment performance data. As Deandra Little reminds us: “a really good assignment, which is a really good assessment, also teaches you something or tells the instructor something. As much as it tells you what students are learning, it’s also telling you what they aren’t learning.” ( Teaching in Higher Ed podcast episode 337 ). Assignment bottlenecks–where students get stuck or struggle–can be good indicators that students need further support or opportunities to practice prior to completing an assignment. This awareness can inform teaching decisions. 

Triangulate the performance data by collecting student feedback, and noting your own reflections about what worked well and what did not. Revise the assignment instructions, rubric, and teaching practices accordingly. Consider how you might better align your assignment with your course objectives and/or provide more opportunities for students to practice using the knowledge and skills that they will rely on for the assignment. Additionally, keep in mind societal, disciplinary, and technological changes as you tweak your assignments for future use. 

Now is a great time to reflect on your practices and experiences with assignment design and think critically about your approach. Take a closer look at an existing assignment. Questions to consider include: What is this assignment meant to do? What purpose does it serve? Why do you ask students to do this assignment? How are they prepared to complete the assignment? Does the assignment assess the kind of learning that you really want? What would help students learn from this assignment? 

Using the tips in the previous section: How can the assignment be tweaked to be more authentic and meaningful to students? 

As you plan forward for post-pandemic teaching and reflect on your practices and reimagine your course design, you may find the following CTL resources helpful: Reflecting On Your Experiences with Remote Teaching , Transition to In-Person Teaching , and Course Design Support .

The Columbia Center for Teaching and Learning (CTL) is here to help!

For assistance with assignment design, rubric design, or any other teaching and learning need, please request a consultation by emailing [email protected] . 

Transparency in Learning and Teaching (TILT) framework for assignments. The TILT Examples and Resources page ( https://tilthighered.com/tiltexamplesandresources ) includes example assignments from across disciplines, as well as a transparent assignment template and a checklist for designing transparent assignments . Each emphasizes the importance of articulating to students the purpose of the assignment or activity, the what and how of the task, and specifying the criteria that will be used to assess students. 

Association of American Colleges & Universities (AAC&U) offers VALUE ADD (Assignment Design and Diagnostic) tools ( https://www.aacu.org/value-add-tools ) to help with the creation of clear and effective assignments that align with the desired learning outcomes and associated VALUE rubrics (Valid Assessment of Learning in Undergraduate Education). VALUE ADD encourages instructors to explicitly state assignment information such as the purpose of the assignment, what skills students will be using, how it aligns with course learning outcomes, the assignment type, the audience and context for the assignment, clear evaluation criteria, desired formatting, and expectations for completion whether individual or in a group.

Villarroel et al. (2017) propose a blueprint for building authentic assessments which includes four steps: 1) consider the workplace context, 2) design the authentic assessment; 3) learn and apply standards for judgement; and 4) give feedback. 

References 

Ambrose, S. A., Bridges, M. W., & DiPietro, M. (2010). Chapter 3: What Factors Motivate Students to Learn? In How Learning Works: Seven Research-Based Principles for Smart Teaching . Jossey-Bass. 

Ashford-Rowe, K., Herrington, J., and Brown, C. (2013). Establishing the critical elements that determine authentic assessment. Assessment & Evaluation in Higher Education. 39(2), 205-222, http://dx.doi.org/10.1080/02602938.2013.819566 .  

Bean, J.C. (2011). Engaging Ideas: The Professor’s Guide to Integrating Writing, Critical Thinking, and Active Learning in the Classroom . Second Edition. Jossey-Bass. 

Frey, B. B, Schmitt, V. L., and Allen, J. P. (2012). Defining Authentic Classroom Assessment. Practical Assessment, Research, and Evaluation. 17(2). DOI: https://doi.org/10.7275/sxbs-0829  

Herrington, J., Reeves, T. C., and Oliver, R. (2010). A Guide to Authentic e-Learning . Routledge. 

Herrington, J. and Oliver, R. (2000). An instructional design framework for authentic learning environments. Educational Technology Research and Development, 48(3), 23-48. 

Litchfield, B. C. and Dempsey, J. V. (2015). Authentic Assessment of Knowledge, Skills, and Attitudes. New Directions for Teaching and Learning. 142 (Summer 2015), 65-80. 

Maclellan, E. (2004). How convincing is alternative assessment for use in higher education. Assessment & Evaluation in Higher Education. 29(3), June 2004. DOI: 10.1080/0260293042000188267

McLaughlin, L. and Ricevuto, J. (2021). Assessments in a Virtual Environment: You Won’t Need that Lockdown Browser! Faculty Focus. June 2, 2021. 

Mueller, J. (2005). The Authentic Assessment Toolbox: Enhancing Student Learning through Online Faculty Development . MERLOT Journal of Online Learning and Teaching. 1(1). July 2005. Mueller’s Authentic Assessment Toolbox is available online. 

Schroeder, R. (2021). Vaccinate Against Cheating With Authentic Assessment . Inside Higher Ed. (February 26, 2021).  

Sotiriadou, P., Logan, D., Daly, A., and Guest, R. (2019). The role of authentic assessment to preserve academic integrity and promote skills development and employability. Studies in Higher Education. 45(111), 2132-2148. https://doi.org/10.1080/03075079.2019.1582015    

Stachowiak, B. (Host). (November 25, 2020). Authentic Assignments with Deandra Little. (Episode 337). In Teaching in Higher Ed . https://teachinginhighered.com/podcast/authentic-assignments/  

Svinicki, M. D. (2004). Authentic Assessment: Testing in Reality. New Directions for Teaching and Learning. 100 (Winter 2004): 23-29. 

Villarroel, V., Bloxham, S, Bruna, D., Bruna, C., and Herrera-Seda, C. (2017). Authentic assessment: creating a blueprint for course design. Assessment & Evaluation in Higher Education. 43(5), 840-854. https://doi.org/10.1080/02602938.2017.1412396    

Weimer, M. (2013). Learner-Centered Teaching: Five Key Changes to Practice . Second Edition. San Francisco: Jossey-Bass. 

Wiggins, G. (2014). Authenticity in assessment, (re-)defined and explained. Retrieved from https://grantwiggins.wordpress.com/2014/01/26/authenticity-in-assessment-re-defined-and-explained/

Wiggins, G. (1998). Teaching to the (Authentic) Test. Educational Leadership . April 1989. 41-47. 

Wiggins, Grant (1990). The Case for Authentic Assessment . Practical Assessment, Research & Evaluation , 2(2). 

5 Curriculum Design, Development and Models: Planning for Student Learning

“. . . there is always a need for newly formulated curriculum models that address contemporary circumstance and valued educational aspirations.” –Edmond Short

Introduction

Curriculum design refers to the structure or organization of the curriculum, and curriculum development includes the planning, implementation, and evaluation processes of the curriculum. Curriculum models guide these processes.

Essential Questions

• What is curriculum design?
• What questions did Tyler pose for guiding the curriculum design process?
• What are the major curriculum design models?
• What unique element did Goodlad add to his model?
• In addition to the needs of the learner, what did Hilda Taba add to her model?

Meaning of Curriculum Design

From Curriculum Studies, pp. 65-68

Curriculum design is largely concerned with issues such as what to include in the curriculum and how to present it in such a way that the curriculum can be implemented with understanding and success (Barlow et al., 1984). Therefore, curriculum design refers to how the components of the curriculum have been arranged in order to facilitate learning (Shiundu & Omulando, 1992).

Curriculum design is concerned with issues of choosing what the organizational basis or structural framework of the curriculum is. The choice of a design often implies a value position.

As with other curriculum-related concepts, curriculum design has a variety of definitions, depending on the scholars involved. For example, Doll (1992) says that curriculum design is a way of organizing that permits curriculum ideas to function. She also adds that curriculum design refers to the structure or pattern of the organization of the curriculum.

The curriculum design process results in a curriculum document that contains the following:

• a statement of purpose(s),
• an instructional guide that displays behavioral objectives and content organization in harmony with school organization,
• a set of guidelines (or rules) governing the use of the curriculum, and
• an evaluation plan.

Thus, curriculum is designed to fit the organizational pattern of the school/institution for which it is intended.

How a curriculum is conceptualized, organized, developed, and implemented depends on a particular state’s or district’s educational objectives. Whatever design is adopted depends also on the philosophy of education.

There are several ways of designing school curriculum. These include subject-centered, learner-centered, integrated, or broad fields (which combines two or more related subjects into one field of study; e.g., language arts combine the separate but related subjects of reading, writing, speaking, listening, comprehension, and spelling into a core curriculum).

Subject-Centered Curriculum Design

This curriculum design refers to the organization of curriculum in terms of separate subjects, e.g., geography, math, and history, etc. This has been the oldest school curriculum design and the most common in the world. It was even practiced by the ancient Greek educators. The subject-centered design was adapted by many European and African countries as well as states and districts in the United States. An examination of the subject-centered curriculum design shows that it is used mainly in the upper elementary and secondary schools and colleges. Frequently, laypeople, educators, and other professionals who support this design received their schooling or professional training in this type of system. Teachers, for instance, are trained and specialized to teach one or two subjects at the secondary and sometimes the elementary school levels.

There are advantages and disadvantages of this approach to curriculum organization. There are reasons why some educators advocate for it while others criticize this approach.

Advantages of Subject-Centered Curriculum Design

It is possible and desirable to determine in advance what all children will learn in various subjects and grade levels. For instance, curricula for schools in centralized systems of education are generally developed and approved centrally by a governing body in the education body for a given district or state. In the U.S., the state government often oversees this process which is guided by standards.

• It is usually required to set minimum standards of performance and achievement for the knowledge specified in the subject area.
• Almost all textbooks and support materials on the educational market are organized by subject, although the alignment of the text contents and the standards are often open for debate.
• Tradition seems to give this design greater support. People have become familiar and more comfortable with the subject-centered curriculum and view it as part of the system of the school and education as a whole.
• The subject-centered curriculum is better understood by teachers because their training was based on this method, i.e., specialization.
• Advocates of the subject-centered design have argued that the intellectual powers of individual learners can develop through this approach.
• Curriculum planning is easier and simpler in the subject-centered curriculum design.

Disadvantages of Subject-Centered Curriculum Design

Critics of subject-centered curriculum design have strongly advocated a shift from it. These criticisms are based on the following arguments:

• Subject-centered curriculum tends to bring about a high degree of fragmentation of knowledge.
• Subject-centered curriculum lacks integration of content. Learning in most cases tends to be compartmentalized. Subjects or knowledge are broken down into smaller seemingly unrelated bits of information to be learned.
• This design stresses content and tends to neglect the needs, interests, and experiences of the students.
• There has always been an assumption that information learned through the subject-matter curriculum will be transferred for use in everyday life situations. This claim has been questioned by many scholars who argue that the automatic transfer of the information already learned does not always occur.

Given the arguments for and against subject-centered curriculum design, let us consider the learner-centered or personalized curriculum design.

Learner-Centered/Personalized Curriculum Design

Learner-centered curriculum design may take various forms such as individualized or personalized learning. In this design, the curriculum is organized around the needs, interests, abilities, and aspirations of students.

Advocates of the design emphasize that attention is paid to what is known about human growth, development, and learning. Planning this type of curriculum is done along with the students after identifying their varied concerns, interests, and priorities and then developing appropriate topics as per the issues raised.

This type of design requires a lot of resources and manpower to meet a variety of needs. Hence, the design is more commonly used in the U.S. and other western countries, while in the developing world the use is more limited.

To support this approach, Hilda Taba (1962) stated, “Children like best those things that are attached to solving actual problems that help them in meeting real needs or that connect with some active interest. Learning in its true sense is an active transaction.”

Advantages of the Learner-Centered Curriculum Design

• The needs and interests of students are considered in the selection and organization of content.
• Because the needs and interests of students are considered in the planning of students’ work, the resulting curriculum is relevant to the student’s world.
• The design allows students to be active and acquire skills and procedures that apply to the outside world.

Disadvantages of the Learner-Centered Curriculum Design

• The needs and interests of students may not be valid or long lasting. They are often short-lived.
• The interests and needs of students may not reflect specific areas of knowledge that could be essential for successful functioning in society. Quite often, the needs and interests of students have been emphasized and not those that are important for society in general.
• The nature of the education systems and society in many countries may not permit learner-centered curriculum design to be implemented effectively.
• As pointed out earlier, the design is expensive in regard to resources, both human and fiscal, that are needed to satisfy the needs and interests of individual students.
• This design is sometimes accused of shallowness. It is argued that critical analysis and in-depth coverage of subject content is inhibited by the fact that students’ needs and interests guide the planning process.

Broad Fields/Integrated Curriculum

From Curriculum Studies , pp. 69-80

In the broad fields/integrated curriculum design, two, three, or more subjects are unified into one broad course of study. This organization is a system of combining and regrouping subjects that are related to the curriculum.

This approach attempts to develop some kind of synthesis or unity for the entire branch or more branches of knowledge into new fields.

Examples of Broad Fields

• Language Arts : Incorporates reading, writing, grammar, literature, speech, drama, and international languages.
• General Science : Includes natural and physical sciences, physics, chemistry, geology, astronomy, physical geography, zoology, botany, biology, and physiology
• Other : Include environmental education and family-life education

Advocates of the broad fields/integrated designs believe that the approach brings about unification and integration of knowledge. However, looking at the trend of events in curriculum practice in many states and countries, this may not have materialized effectively. The main reason is that teachers are usually trained in two subjects at the university level, thus making it difficult for them to integrate more areas than that. For instance, general science might require physics, chemistry, biology, and geology, but science teachers may have only studied two of these areas in depth.

Advantages of Broad Field/Integrated Curriculum Design

• It is based on separate subjects, so it provides for an orderly and systematic exposure to the cultural heritage.
• It integrates separate subjects into a single course; this enables learners to see the relationships among various elements in the curriculum.
• It saves time in the school schedule.

Disadvantages of Broad Field/Integrated Curriculum Design

• It lacks depth and cultivates shallowness.
• It provides only bits and pieces of information from a variety of subjects.
• It does not account for the psychological organization by which learning takes place.

Core Curriculum Design

Meaning of core curriculum.

The concept core curriculum is used to refer to areas of study in the school curriculum or any educational program that is required by all students. The core curriculum provides students with “common learning” or general education that is considered necessary for all. Thus, the core curriculum constitutes the segment of the curriculum that teaches concepts, skills, and attitudes needed by all individuals to function effectively within the society.

Characteristics of Core Curriculum Design

The basic features of the core curriculum designs include the following:

• They constitute a section of the curriculum that all students are required to take.
• They unify or fuse subject matter, especially in subjects such as English, social studies, etc.
• Their content is planned around problems that cut across the disciplines. In this approach, the basic method of learning is problem-solving using all applicable subject matter.
• They are organized into blocks of time, e.g. two or three periods under a core teacher. Other teachers may be utilized where it is possible.

Types of Core Curriculum Designs

The following types of core curriculum are commonly found in secondary schools and college curriculums.

Separate subjects taught separately with little or no effort to relate them to each other (e.g., mathematics, science, languages, and humanities may be taught as unrelated core subjects in high schools).

The integrated or “fused” core design is based on the overall integration of two or more subjects, for example:

• Physics, chemistry, biology, and zoology may be taught as general science.
• Environmental education is an area with an interdisciplinary approach in curriculum planning.
• History, economics, civics, and geography may be combined and taught as social studies.

Curriculum Design Models

There are a variety of curriculum design models to guide the process. Most of the designs are based on Ralph Tyler’s work which emphasizes the role and place of objectives in curriculum design.

Ralph Tyler’s Model

Tyler’s Model (1949) is based on the following four (4) fundamental questions he posed for guiding the curriculum design process. They are as follows:

• What educational purposes is the school seeking to attain?
• What educational experiences are potentially provided that are likely to attain these purposes?
• How can these educational experiences be effectively organized?
• How can we determine whether these purposes are being attained?

Schematically, Tyler’s model is presented as follows.

Application of Ralph Tyler’s Model in Curriculum Design

In applying Tyler’s model to curriculum design, the process begins with framing objectives for the curriculum. Because of its emphasis on the importance of objectives, it is considered an objective-based model. This process starts with analyzing information from various data sources. Data sources for curriculum according to Tyler include:

• For this source, the designer analyzes the issues affecting society that could be solved through education.
• Examples are cultural issues, socio-economic issues, and health issues such as HIV/AIDS among.
• Learner’s needs and interests
• Subject specialists/subject matter

From these sources, the designer develops general objectives. These are subjected to a screening process, using the philosophy of education and psychology of learning as the major screens. Social values are also used as a screen, but sometimes these are subsumed in the philosophy of education. This yields a feasible number of objectives that are focused on in education.

Specific objectives are then derived from the general objectives. For each of the specific objectives, learning experiences are identified. In this context, the learning experiences include the subject matter/content and learning activities.

The next step is the organization of learning experiences. This is done to ensure effective learning takes place. The various principles of the organization include scope, sequence, integration, and continuity, among others. The final step involves evaluation, to determine the extent to which the objectives have been met.

Feedback from the evaluation is then used to modify the learning experiences and the entire curriculum as found necessary.

Learning Experiences

Learning experiences refer to the interaction between the learner and the external conditions in the environment which they encounter. Learning takes place through the active participation of the students; it is what the students are involved in that they learn, not what the teacher does.

The problem of selecting learning experiences is the problem of determining the kind of experiences likely to produce given educational objectives and also the problem of how to set up opportunity situations that evoke or provide within the student the kinds of learning experiences desired.

General Principles in Selecting Learning Experiences

• Provide experiences that give students opportunities to practice the behavior and deal with the content implied.
• Provide experiences that give satisfaction from carrying on the kind of behavior implied in the objectives.
• Provide experiences that are appropriate to the student’s present attainments, his/her predispositions.
• Keep in mind that many experiences can be used to attain the same educational objectives.
• Remember that the same learning experience will usually bring about several outcomes.

Selection of Subject Matter/Content

The term subject matter/content refers to the data, concepts, generalizations, and principles of school subjects such as mathematics, biology, or chemistry that are organized into bodies of knowledge sometimes called disciplines. For instance, Ryman (1973) specifically defines content as:

Knowledge such as facts, explanations, principles, definitions, skills, and processes such as reading, writing, calculating, dancing, and values such as the beliefs about matters concerned with good and bad, right and wrong, beautiful and ugly.

The selection of content and learning experiences is one crucial part of curriculum making. This is mainly because of the explosion of knowledge that made the simplicity of school subjects impossible. As specialized knowledge increases, it is necessary either to add more subjects or to assign new priorities in the current offerings to make room for new knowledge and new concepts.

New requirements for what constitute literacy have also emerged. In secondary schools, the usual method of accommodating new demands is to introduce new subjects or to put new units into existing subjects.

Improved educational technology such as the use of television, radio, computers, and multi-media resources support an expansion of what can be learned in a given period. New technological aids for self- teaching, for communicating information, and for learning a variety of skills are shifting the balance of time and effort needed for acquiring a substantial portion of the curriculum. What then are the criteria for the selection of content?

Criteria for the Selection of Content

Several criteria need to be considered in selecting content. These include the validity, significance, needs, and interests of learners.

The term validity implies a close connection between content and the goals which it is intended to serve. In this sense, content is valid if it promotes the outcomes that it is intended to promote. In other words, does the curriculum include concepts and learnings that it states it does?

Significance

The significance of curriculum content refers to the sustainability of the material chosen to meet certain needs and ability levels of the learners.

Needs and Interests of the Learner

The needs and interests of the learners are considered in the selection of content to ensure a relevant curriculum to the student’s world. This also ensures that the students will be more motivated to engage with the curriculum.

In this context, the subject matter of a curriculum is selected in the light of its usefulness to the learner in solving his/her problems now and in the future.

Learnability

Curriculum content is learnable and adaptable to the students’ experiences. One factor in learnability is the adjustment of the curriculum content and the focus of learning experiences on the abilities of the learners. For effective learning, the abilities of students must be taken into account at every point of the selection and organization.

Consistency with Social Realities

If the curriculum is to be a useful prescription for learning, its content, and the outcomes it pursues need to be in tune with the social and cultural realities of the culture and the times.

John Goodlad’s Model

The Goodlad model deviates a bit from the Ralph Tyler’s model. It is particularly unique in its use of social values. Whereas Tyler considers them as a screen, Goodlad proposes they are used as data sources. Hence, Goodlad proposes four data sources:

• funded knowledge,
• conventional wisdom, and
• student needs and interests.

John Goodlad was a Canadian-born educator and author who believed that the most important focus of education should not be based on standardized testing, but rather to prepare young people to be well-informed citizens in democracy. His inclusion of values in the curriculum-development chart reflects his belief that educational systems must be driven by goals or values.  He believed that education has a moral dimension, and those who teach are “moral agents.” To be a professional teacher means that one is a moral agent with a moral obligation, including initiating the young into a culture. In the United States, this means “critical enculturation into a political democracy”  because a democratic society depends on the renewal and blending of self-interests and the public welfare (Goodlad, 1988).  For that reason, Goodlad places “values” at the very top of his model.

Funded Knowledge

Funded knowledge is knowledge which is gained from research. Generally, research is heavily funded by various organizations. Information from research is used to inform educational practice in all aspects, particularly in curriculum design.

Conventional Wisdom

Conventional wisdom includes specialized knowledge within the society, for example from experts in various walks of life and ‘older’ people with life experiences. Students’ needs and interests are also considered in the design process.

Data from the various sources are then used to develop general aims of education from which general educational objectives are derived. These objectives are stated in behavioral terms. A behavioral objective has two components: a behavioral element and a substantive element. The behavioral element refers to the ‘action’ that a learner is able to perform, while the substantive element represents the ‘content’ or “substance” of the behavior.

From the general objectives, the curriculum designer identifies learning opportunities that facilitate the achievement of the general objectives. This could, for example, be specific courses of study.

The next step involves deriving specific educational objectives stated behaviorally. These are akin to instructional objectives. They are used to identify “organizing centers” which are specific learning opportunities, for example, a specific topic, a field trip, an experiment, etc.

Regarding evaluation, Goodlad proposed continuous evaluation at all stages of the design process. In the model, evaluation is represented by the double-edged arrows that appear throughout the model.

How then does Tyler’s model differ with that of John Goodlad’s?

Goodlad’s model departs from the traditional model based on Tyler’s work in several ways:

• recognition of references to scientific knowledge from research,
• use of explicit value statements as primary data sources,
• introduction of organizing centers i.e., the specific learning opportunities,
• continuous evaluation is used as a constant data source, not only as a final monitor of students’ progress (formative evaluation) but also for checking each step in the curriculum planning process. Hence, the model insists upon both formative and process evaluation.

Curriculum literature still has many more models for design. We shall highlight a few of them.

Other Curriculum Designs

There are many other curriculum design models developed by different scholars. Most of these models are objectives-based, i.e. they focus on objectives as the basis upon which the entire design process is based, and draw a lot from the work of Ralph Tyler. Those include the Wheeler, Kerr, and Taba models.

The Wheeler Model

D.K. Wheeler developed a cyclic model in reaction to criticism leveled at Ralph Tyler’s model. The latter was seen as being too simplistic and vertical. By being vertical, it did not recognize the relationship between various curriculum elements. His cyclic proposal was therefore aimed at highlighting the interrelatedness of the various curriculum elements. It also emphasizes the need to use feedback from evaluation in redefining the goals and objectives of the curriculum.

The Models of John Kerr and Hilda Taba

Other scholars who were also convinced of the ‘objectives’ approach to curriculum design were John Kerr and Hilda Taba. Their work is summarized in the simplified models presented in the graphic presentations that follow. Both of them emphasize the interrelatedness of the various curriculum elements.

John Kerr’s Model

John Kerr, a British Curriculum specialist in the 1960s, was particularly concerned with the following issues: objectives, knowledge, school learning experiences, and evaluation. This is reflected in the sketch below.

Kerr’s model is in many ways similar to that of Ralph Tyler and Wheeler. The difference is the emphasis on the interrelatedness of the various components in terms of the flow of the data between each component.

Hilda Taba’s Model

Hilda Taba was born in Europe and emigrated to the United States during a tumultuous time in history that had a great effect on her view of education. She was initially influenced by progressivists: John Dewey and Ralph Tyler, and one of her goals was to nurture the development of students and encourage them to actively participate in a democratic society. Taba’s model was inductive rather than deductive in nature, and it is characterized by being a continuous process.

Taba’s model emphasized concept development in elementary social studies curriculum and was used by teachers in her workshops. She was able to make connections between culture, politics, and social change as well as  cognition, experience, and evaluation in curriculum development, particularly in the areas of  teacher preparation and civic education. Taba’s work with teachers in communities around the United States  and in Europe has provided a blueprint for curriculum development that continues to be used by curriculum developers today. To explore more information about Taba and her work, you may access Taba’s Bio .

Hilda Taba, on her part, was also influenced by Ralph Tyler. Her conceptual model follows. The interrelatedness of the curriculum elements from both models suggests the process is continuous.

Factors that Influence Curriculum Design

Several factors need to be taken into account when designing a curriculum. These include:

• teacher’s individual characteristics,
• application of technology,
• student’s cultural background and socio-economic status,
• interactions between teachers and students, and
• classroom management; among many other factors.

Insight 5.0

There is no “silver bullet” in designing curriculum. What is best for one classroom or one district may not work somewhere else. When setting up the process, using a combination of designs might work best.

If you were leading a curriculum committee, which model would you use for the curriculum development process?

Respond using the Hypothesis ILA Responses Group annotation tool. Choose the content area(s) and grade level(s), a specific model or a combination of models, and include rationale for your choices.

Curriculum design is central to the development of curriculum, and it can be done in several ways. Each design has advantages and disadvantages for both learners and teachers. Ralph Tyler included four questions that guided his curriculum design model. Tyler’s model influenced later curriculum designs by John Goodlad, D.K. Wheeler, John Kerr, Hilda Taba, and others. In the next chapter, we look at how curriculum is developed and its scope.

Curriculum Essentials: A Journey Copyright © 2021 by Linda J. Button, Ed.D. is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 4.0 International License , except where otherwise noted.

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MOC Student Projects on Country & Cluster Competitiveness

The competitive assessments listed on this page have been prepared by teams of graduate students mostly from Harvard Business School and the Harvard Kennedy School of Government and other universities as part of the requirements for the Microeconomics of Competitiveness.  Each study focuses on the competitiveness of a specific cluster in a country or region and includes specific action recommendations.

These studies represent a valuable resource for researchers, government officials, and other leaders.  Students have given permission to publish their work here; the copyright for each report is retained by the student authors.  References to the reports should include a full list of the authors.

Student Projects by Country

• Argentina Soy Cluster  (2016)
• Armenia IT Services Cluster  (2006)
• Australia Liquefied Natural Gas (LNG) Cluster  (2016)
• South Australia Wine Cluster  (2010)
• Australia Renewable Energy  (2008)
• Belgium Chocolate Cluster  (2016)
• Wallonia Aeronautic Cluster  (2013)
• Belgium Pharmaceuticals  (2011)
• The Botswana Textiles Cluster  (2007)
• Brazilian Petrochemical Cluster  (2017)
• Sao Paulo Plastics  (2013)
• Leather Footwear in Brazil  (2012)
• Brazil Aviation  (2011)
• Bio-ethanol Cluster in Brazil  (2009)
• Brazil Biotech Cluster: Minas Gerais  (2009)
• The Poultry Cluster in Brazil  (2006)
• Bulgaria's Apparel Cluster  (2007)
• Alberta Energy Cluster  (2010)
• Ontario Financial Services  (2008)
• Transportation and Logistics Cluster in Northeast China  (2017)
• Wind Turbine Cluster in Inner Mongolia  (2009)
• The Chinese Apparel Cluster in Guangdong  (2006)
• Bogota Software Cluster  (2013)
• The Sugar Cane Cluster in Colombia  (2007)
• Colombia Shrimp Aquaculture  (2008)
• Costa Rica Data Centers  (2016)
• Costa Rica Medical Tourism  (2016)
• Ship & Boatbuilding in Croatia  (2009)
• The Danish Wind Cluster  (2017)
• The Danish Design Cluster  (2007)

Dominican Republic

• The Dominican Republic Tourism Cluster  (2012)
• Tourism in the Dominican Republic  (2007)
• The Textile Cluster in Egypt  (2012)
• The Offshoring Cluster in Egypt  (2009)
• France's Competitiveness in AI  (2017)
• Toulouse Aerospace Cluster  (2013)
• France Wine Cluster  (2013)
• Baden-Wuerttemberg Automobile Cluster  (2015)
• Germany Wind Power Cluster  (2010)
• Germany’s Photovoltaic Cluster  (2009)
• Hamburg Aviation Cluster  (2009)
• Biotechnology and Life Sciences in Munich  (2007)
• Ghana Cocoa Sector  (2017)
• Greece Shipping Cluster  (2010)
• The Fresh Produce Cluster in Guatemala  (2009)
• The Apparel Cluster in Honduras  (2007)
• Hong Kong Financial Services  (2008)
• Iceland Financial Services  (2008)
• The Antiretroviral Drug Cluster in India  (2017)
• Andhra Pradesh Pharmaceutical Cluster  (2013)
• Tamil Nadu (India) Automotive Cluster  (2012)
• Tirupur (India) Knitwear  (2011)
• India (Maharashtra) Automotive Cluster  (2010)
• Maharashtra Biopharmaceutical Cluster  (2009)
• Bangalore Biotechnology  (2008)
• Gujarat Diamonds  (2008)
• Bollywood — Maharashtra and India’s Film Cluster  (2008)
• Karnataka Offshore IT and Business Process Outsourcing Services Cluster  (2006)
• Bali Tourism Cluster  (2013)
• Ireland Financial Services Cluster  (2017)
• Ireland Internet Cluster  (2013)
• Ireland ICT Cluster  (2010)
• The Dublin International Financial Services Cluster  (2006)
• Israel Aerospace Cluster  (2015)
• Jerusalem Tourism Cluster  (2013)
• Israeli Biotechnology Cluster  (2006)
• Italy Tourism  (2011)
• The Italian Sports Car Cluster  (2006)
• Japan Automobile Cluster  (2016)
• Japan Skin Care Cluster  (2013)
• The Japanese Gaming Cluster  (2012)
• Japan Flat Panel Displays  (2011)
• The Video Games Cluster in Japan  (2009)
• Jordan Tourism Cluster  (2009)
• Kazakhstan Oil and Gas Cluster  (2010)
• Kazakhstan Energy Cluster  (2007)
• Kenya ITC Services Cluster  (2016)
• Kenya Tourism Cluster  (2016)
• Kenya Business Process Offshoring  (2011)
• Kenya Tea  (2009)
• Kenya Coffee  (2008)
• Kenya's Cut-Flower Cluster  (2007)
• Korea Showbiz Cluster  (2013)
• Korea Shipbuilding Cluster  (2010)
• Korea Online Game Cluster  (2006)
• Textile and Apparel Cluster in Kyrgyzstan  (2012)
• The Macedonian Wine Cluster  (2006)
• The Shrimp Cluster in Madagascar  (2006)
• Malaysia Semiconductor Cluster  (2015)
• Malaysia Palm Oil  (2011)
• Malaysia Financial Services  (2008)
• Queretaro Aerospace Cluster  (2015)
• Mexico Central Region Automotive Cluster  (2013)
• Mexico Chocolate Cluster  (2010)
• Electronics Cluster in Guadalajara Mexico  (2009)
• Baja California Sur Tourism  (2008)
• Monaco Tourism  (2011)
• Mongolia Mining Services Cluster  (2010)
• Morocco Automotive Cluster  (2015)
• Morocco Aeronautics Cluster  (2013)
• Morocco Tourism  (2008)
• Nepal Tourism Cluster  (2015)
• Nepal Tourism  (2011)

Netherlands

• Netherlands Medical Devices Cluster  (2013)
• Netherlands Dairy  (2011)

New Zealand

• New Zealand's Marine Cluster  (2009)
• The Nicaraguan Coffee Cluster  (2006)
• Lagos ICT Services Cluster  (2017)
• Nollywood —  The Nigerian Film Industry  (2008)
• Nigeria Financial Services  (2008)
• Norway’s Fish and Fish Products Cluster  (2017)
• Textiles Cluster in Pakistan  (2007)
• Lima Financial Services Cluster  (2016)
• Asparagus Cluster in Peru  (2012)
• Peru Tourism Cluster  (2010)

Philippines

• The Philippines Electronics Components Manufacturing  (2017)
• Medical Tourism in the Philippines  (2008)
• The Philippines Contact Center Cluster  (2007)
• The Tourism Cluster in Lisbon  (2017)
• The Automotive Cluster in Portugal  (2007)
• Romania Apparel Cluster  (2010)
• The Moscow Financial Services Cluster  (2012)
• Moscow Transportation  (2006)

Saudi Arabia

• Saudi Arabia Chemicals Cluster  (2016)
• Singapore Higher Education  (2016)
• Slovakia Automobile Cluster  (2016)

South Africa

• The Johannesburg Software Cluster  (2017)
• South Africa Iron Ore Cluster  (2013)
• South Africa Automotive Cluster  (2012)
• The South African Wine Cluster  (2009)
• Textiles & Apparel Cluster in South Africa  (2009)
• The South African Wine Cluster  (2006)
• Andalucia (Spain) Tourism  (2011)
• Apparel Cluster in Galicia Spain  (2009)
• The Spanish Wind Power Cluster  (2007)

Switzerland

• Banking in Switzerland  (2017)
• Switzerland Private Banking Cluster  (2010)
• Switzerland Watchmaking  (2010)
• Taiwan: Semiconductor Cluster  (2007)
• Tanzania Horticulture Cluster  (2010)
• Tanzania’s Tourism Cluster  (2006)
• Thailand Automotive  (2011)
• Thailand Automotive Cluster  (2007)
• Thailand Medical Tourism Cluster  (2006)

Trinidad & Tobago

• Tourism in Trinidad and Tobago  (2006)
• Tourism Cluster in Tunisia  (2012)
• Tunisian Tourism Cluster  (2008)
• Turkey Textiles and Apparel Cluster  (2012)
• Turkey Automotive  (2011)
• Turkey & The Construction Services Cluster  (2007)
• Uganda Fishing Cluster  (2010)

United Arab Emirates

• Dubai Logistics Cluster  (2015)
• Abu Dhabi (UAE) Petrochemical Cluster  (2012)
• Dubai (UAE) Tourism  (2011)
• The Transport and Logistics Cluster in UAE (2007)
• Dubai Financial Services Cluster  (2006)

United Kingdom

• The Future of the UK Midlands Automotive Cluster  (2017)
• London FinTech Cluster  (2016)
• IT Hardware Cluster in Cambridge, UK  (2012)
• UK Competitiveness and the International Financial Services Cluster in London   (2007)

United States

• Massachusetts Clean Energy Cluster  (2017)
• Ohio Automotive Cluster  (2017)
• Chicago Biotech Cluster  (2016)
• San Diego Craft Beer Cluster  (2016)
• Kentucky Bourbon Cluster  (2015)
• New York City Apparel Cluster  (2015)
• Pennsylvania Natural Gas Cluster  (2013)
• New York Motion Picture Cluster  (2013)
• Massachusetts Robotics Cluster  (2012)
• Miami, Florida Marine Transportation Cluster  (2012)
• South Carolina Automotive Sector  (2012)
• Tennessee Music Cluster  (2012)
• California Solar Energy  (2011)
• Silicon Valley (California) Internet-Based Services  (2011)
• Minnesota Medical Devices  (2011)
• Massachusetts Higher Education and Knowledge Cluster (2010)
• The North Carolina Furniture Cluster  (2009)
• Automotive Cluster in Michigan USA  (2009)
• Washington D.C. Information Technology and Services Cluster  (2008)
• The Chicago Processed Food Cluster  (2006)
• The Los Angeles Motion Picture Industry Cluster  (2006)

Student Projects by Cluster

Aerospace vehicles & defense, agricultural products.

• Asparagus in Peru  (2012)
• Textiles and Apparel Cluster in Turkey  (2012)
• Bulgaria's Apparel Cluster   (2007)
• South African Automotive Cluster  (2012)
• South Carolina (USA) Automotive Cluster  (2012)

Biopharmaceuticals

• Bangalore (India) Biotechnology  (2008)

Business Services

• Karnataka (India) Offshore IT and Business Process Outsourcing Services Cluster  (2006)

Construction Services

Education & knowledge creation.

• Massachusetts Higher Education and Knowledge Cluster  (2010)

Entertainment

• Nollywood The Nigerian Film Industry  (2008)

Financial Services

• The Moscow (Russia) Financial Services Cluster  (2012)
• Ontario (Canada) Financial Services  (2008)
• UK Competitiveness and the International Financial Services Cluster in London  (2007)

Fishing & Fishing Products

Health services, hospitality & tourism.

• Baja California Sur (Mexico) Tourism  (2008)

Information Technology

• The Johannesburg Software Cluster  (2017)

Jewelry & Precious Metals

• Gujarat (India) Diamonds  (2008)

Marine Equipment

Medical devices, metal manufacturing, metal mining, oil & gas products & services.

• Abu Dhabi (UAE) Petrochemical Cluster  (2012)
• Norway Oil and Gas Cluster  (2012)

Processed Food

Power generation & transmission, transportation & logistics.

• The Miami Florida Marine Transportation Cluster  (2012)
• The Transport and Logistics Cluster in the United Arab Emirates  (2007)

FREE K-12 standards-aligned STEM

curriculum for educators everywhere!

Find more at TeachEngineering.org .

• TeachEngineering
• Model Greenhouses

Hands-on Activity Model Greenhouses

Grade Level: 9 (9-11)

Conduct this activity as an in-depth two- or three-class period design project.

Expendable Cost/Group: US $20.00

Group Size: 3

Activity Dependency: None

Subject Areas: Physical Science, Physics

NGSS Performance Expectations:

Curriculum in this Unit Units serve as guides to a particular content or subject area. Nested under units are lessons (in purple) and hands-on activities (in blue). Note that not all lessons and activities will exist under a unit, and instead may exist as "standalone" curriculum.

• Solar Water Heater
• Swamp Cooler
• Designing a Thermostat
• Daylighting Design
• Power Your House with Water
• Power Your House with Wind
• Zero-Energy Housing

TE Newsletter

Engineering connection, learning objectives, materials list, worksheets and attachments, pre-req knowledge, introduction/motivation, vocabulary/definitions, investigating questions, troubleshooting tips, activity extensions, activity scaling, user comments & tips.

An engineer might design and build a greenhouse to create a controlled environment for growing many different types of plants. With a greenhouse, a grower can monitor and adjust the amount of heat, light and water plants receive, enabling optimal growing conditions, which allows for an extended growing season. As an additional design component of many energy-efficient houses, greenhouses contribute to a house's overall energy efficiency by providing a space for year round home grown vegetables and flowers.

After this activity, students should be able to:

• List the benefits (cost saving, efficiency) of using a greenhouse.
• Explain the greenhouse effect in depth.
• Provide an in-depth explanation of the greenhouse effect.

Educational Standards Each TeachEngineering lesson or activity is correlated to one or more K-12 science, technology, engineering or math (STEM) educational standards. All 100,000+ K-12 STEM standards covered in TeachEngineering are collected, maintained and packaged by the Achievement Standards Network (ASN) , a project of D2L (www.achievementstandards.org). In the ASN, standards are hierarchically structured: first by source; e.g. , by state; within source by type; e.g. , science or mathematics; within type by subtype, then by grade, etc .

Ngss: next generation science standards - science.

Common Core State Standards - Math

View aligned curriculum

Do you agree with this alignment? Thanks for your feedback!

International Technology and Engineering Educators Association - Technology

State standards, colorado - math, colorado - science.

Each group needs:

• 6 acrylic or Plexiglas squares, approximately 10 to 12 inches (25 to 30-cm ) per side
• hot glue gun and glue sticks
• soil and plant
• thermometer
• clear, wide strapping tape
• Greenhouse Design & Testing Worksheet
• (optional) structural frame made of wood, metal or plastic

For the entire class to share:

• saws, to cut acrylic or Plexiglas

A basic understanding of the properties of light, including the visible spectrum, reflection and refraction of light. Students should concurrently be taking Algebra 1 in order to complete the worksheet calculations.

Have you ever noticed that often, after entering a car that has been in the sun all day, the interior is very warm, and may even be uncomfortably hot. This is not just due to hot weather; it happens because the design of the car lets heat enter, but not escape. This situation is not to be confused with the greenhouse effect. Although the situations are similar, the analogy is incorrect. The greenhouse effect refers to the process by which radiation from the sun is absorbed and reflected by the Earth's surface; some of the reflected radiation makes its way back through the atmosphere, and some is absorbed by greenhouse gas molecules that then re-emit the radiation in all directions in the atmosphere warming the surface of the Earth. As you have probably heard many times, the greenhouse effect has the potential to harm the Earth due to its contribution to global warming — but without it, our Earth would not be warm enough for us to live on!

The process by which a greenhouse works is very different from the greenhouse effect. A greenhouse consists of a structure made entirely of a highly-transparent material, such as glass or plastic. The transparent material lets heat enter in the form of radiation, but does not let this heat escape (at least not very quickly). Heat is absorbed by inside objects and materials through radiation, and then released to the rest of the interior space through convection. The most important aspect of a greenhouse is that a person can control the interior environment, which is helpful when growing plants, especially in climates in which gardening would not normally be favorable.

So how can using a greenhouse improve the energy efficiency of a typical house? To start, it uses the light and heat emitted by the sun to create an exceptional environment for plant life. To do this with conventional heating and lighting would cost quite a lot. It also allows people to grow their own vegetables, herbs and flowers rather than buying them from a market. Designing a greenhouse as an addition to any home gives the inhabitants the opportunity to grow their own vegetables and plants at usually less cost than a grocery store. This saves energy in the form of electrical lights and heaters, as well as the energy that would be used to package the store-bought foods and transport them to the grocery store and to your home.

In the future, engineers may design and build enormous skyscraper greenhouses that are able to grow all kinds of fruits and vegetables, eliminating the need for goods to be transported into major cities. These would allow cities to become self sufficient and help to prevent widespread deforestation.

Today you will have the opprtunity to construct your own miniature greenhouses. By analyzing the global challenge, we will be able to specify criteria and constraints for the designs. 

How Greenhouses Work : Greenhouses operate on four principals: radiation, transmittance, absorption and convection. Through this process, people are able to harvest energy from the sun and use it to maintain a warm and humid indoor environment conducive for plants to grow.

• Step 1: Radiation and Transmittance — Almost all the heat within a greenhouse comes directly from the sun through radiation. This energy is radiated through the Earth's atmosphere and transmitted through glass (or other transparent material) to the interior of the greenhouse.
• Step 2: Absorption — Once energy from the sun reaches the inside of the greenhouse, it must be absorbed. It helps to have a surface that absorbs almost all the energy that hits it (for example, something dark; soil works well). Whatever is inside the greenhouse continues to absorb this energy.
• Step 3: Convection — Once energy is absorbed within the greenhouse, heat is transferred throughout the space through convection. Cooler air falls to the bottom and gets heated up by the absorbing surface, and the process repeats. Because convection is the way the rest of the greenhouse gets heated, it is important to tightly seal the entire structure. Even opening the door for a short period of time can significantly reduce the indoor temperature.

The result of this process is an indoor environment much warmer than normally achievable without a greenhouse. If the temperature gets too high, it is easy to adjust it by opening a window or door to let out some heat.

A greenhouse design can be modified to account for specific capacitance or temperature needs. While changing the slope of the walls and roof does not change the amount of radiation entering, changing the dimensions does. A larger surface area leads to a larger amount of transmitted radiation. To harness all this radiation, a large absorptive surface is also required. For a higher-heat greenhouse, the floor surface area should be maximized while the volume of the overall greenhouse should be minimized (to allow for less space to be heated with the same amount of radiation). Of course, engineers must remain within certain constraints while designing them this way. For a larger capacity, a greenhouse simply needs more volume with a considerable amount of radiation still being transmitted. Greenhouses should be designed to optimally suit the specific needs of the user, so engineers must understand any necessary design modifications.

The Greenhouse Effect and Climate Change : The greenhouse effect is often confused with the process that occurs within an actual greenhouse. The greenhouse effect refers to a process in which reflected radiation from the Earth's surface is absorbed and re-emitted by greenhouse gases, rather than getting passed back into the atmosphere. It prevents the loss of heat by radiation, rather than convection, as in a typical greenhouse. It is important to distinguish between the two because they are easily confused.

Climate change refers to a significant change in average weather patterns over a long period of time in a particular region. It is attributed to several factors such as variations in solar intensity, and the Earth's orbit, and more recently, greenhouse gas emissions. Studying how the climate changes helps to distinguish between natural dynamic climate patterns and more recent forced climate patterns such as those caused by global warming. This kind of information is critical in analyzing the worldwide problem of global warming.

Vertical Farming : Vertical farming is a conceptual form of agriculture suitable for implementation in urban high-rises. These multi-story greenhouses would enable year-round crop production with exceptional benefits. Food for urban centers could be produced without the trouble of weather-related failure or transportation expenses. These buildings could make cities of the future completely self sufficient, reducing deforestation by returning farmland to nature. Currently the concept of vertical farming has not become a reality, but it is likely to revolutionize food production in the next 50 years.

Solar Geometry : It is important to consider the position of the sun and place the greenhouse on the land so that it receives sunlight during all times of the year. For this to happen, it must be completely exposed to the south (assuming its location is in the northern hemisphere). Placement should take into consideration any nearby trees or structures to the south of the greenhouse that may block the winter sun, which is much lower in the sky.

Before the Activity

• Gather materials.
• (optional) To save class time, pre-cut acrylic or Plexiglas squares.
• Make copies of the Greenhouse Design & Testing Worksheets , one per team.

With the Students

• Divide the class into groups of two or three students each.
• Provide each team with a worksheet.
• Have students sketch and build their model greenhouses (see Part 1 on the worksheets). Limit greenhouse sizes to about 1 sq ft (a 10 x 10-inch [25 x 25-cm] base is a good starting point). See Figure 1 for an example sketch with dimensions noted.

• Have students cut (or provide already-cut) pieces of acrylic or Plexiglas for the greenhouse bases, walls and roofs.
• Have students glue pieces together to form the base and walls of the house (do not attach the roof yet). They may use some form of structural members between the acrylic pieces, as depicted in Figure 1.
• Direct students to fill the bottom of the greenhouse with soil and a plant.
• Instruct each group to insert a thermometer somewhere inside. If the thermometer does not fit inside, it can extend out of one of the joints, as long as the overall structure is sealed.
• Next, have students attach the roof using tape as a temporary seal for one of the pieces (to allow access to the inside). Remind students to make sure any gaps are filled in and that the structure is air tight when they are ready for testing.
• On a sunny day, bring the class outside to test their greenhouses. Follow Part 2 of the worksheet for testing procedures. As a control, also record the ambient outdoor temperatures (outside the greenhouse) at each time interval.
• Once testing is complete, bring the class back inside to complete the graphing and analysis portions (Parts 3 and 4) of their worksheets.
• Have students compare results with one another and discuss the overall results as a class.
• Conclude by continuing the class discussion, incorporating questions provided in the Assessment section. If time permits (or as a homework assignment), ask students to re-engineer their model greenhouses, as described in the Assessment section.

absorbance: The ability of a medium to absorb radiation.

global warming: The recent trend of increasing world surface temperatures, thought to be caused by pollutants and their "entrapment" of heat.

greenhouse: A structure with transparent walls and roof used for the cultivation of plants under controlled conditions.

greenhouse effect: The warming of the Earth's surface due to greenhouse gases.

greenhouse gases: Gases that contribute to the greenhouse effect (mainly carbon dioxide, methane and water).

model: (noun) A representation of something for imitation, comparison or analysis, sometimes on a different scale. (verb) To simulate, make or construct something to help visualize or learn about something else (as a product, process or system) that is difficult to directly observed or experimented upon.

radiation: Energy that is radiated or transmitted in the form of rays, waves or particles.

transmittance: The amount of light that passes through an object.

Pre-Activity Assessment

Question/Answer : Have students first discuss amongst themselves, and then discuss as a class.

• What kind of heat transfer does a greenhouse use to gain heat? How is it able to do this? (Answer: The greenhouse gains heat through solar radiation. It is able to do this because radiation does not require a medium and can easily be transmitted through transparent or nearly transparent materials [such as glass].)
• What kind of heat transfer does the greenhouse prevent (between the inside and outside)? How does this help the greenhouse operate? (Answer: The greenhouse prevents convection heat transfer between the indoor and outdoor air. This allows the indoor air to be heated up while keeping it from exchanging with the cooler outdoor air. Because the greenhouse is sealed up, it only loses heat through conduction.)

Activity Embedded Assessment

Worksheet : Have teams complete the Greenhouse Design & Testing Worksheet ; review their answers to gauge their mastery of the subject.

Post-Activity Assessment

Re-Engineering : Ask students how they could improve their model greenhouse and have them sketch or test their ideas.

Concluding Discussion Question/Answer : Ask students and discuss as a class.

• Why is it important for engineers to understand the principles behind which a greenhouse operates? (Answer: An understanding of the way greenhouses work helps engineers design structures for optimal energy efficiency.)
• How does the inclusion of a greenhouse add to the energy efficiency of a house? (Answer: Including a greenhouse in the design of a house enables additional solar energy to be harnessed and used for anything from growing plants to space heating in the winter season. The addition of a greenhouse has the potential to save a great deal of money and energy in any household.)

What are some ways to use a greenhouse other than for gardening? (Possible answer: You could install a duct and fan system to pull warm air out of the greenhouse and heat your house during the winter [this would mean it would no longer work for gardening].)

Safety Issues

• Careful with the saws, hot glue guns and hot glue.

If a model greenhouse has difficulty retaining heat, make sure it is completely sealed so no air can leak out.

Have students work as a class to design and build a larger greenhouse that can hold more plants.

Have teams evaluate their models considering solar geometry, thinking about the position of the sun in relation to their greenhouses. Where would they place their greenhouses next to a house? For example, a greenhouse is best placed in an area that receives sunlight during all times of the year.

Have students design and build a small scale "vertical farm" by working together to create a multi-story greenhouse. Learn more about this idea at The Vertical Farm Project, http://www.verticalfarm.com/ .

• For younger students, offer the worksheet's final analysis math calculation as a challenge question.

Greenhouse Effect. Updated December 4, 2008. Wikipedia, The Free Encyclopedia. Accessed December 4, 2008. http://www.gov.mb.ca/agriculture/crops/greenhouse/bng01s04.html

Greenhouse Heating and Venting: A guideline for determining heating and venting requirements of a greenhouse. March 2006. Manitoba Agriculture, Food, and Rural Initiatives. Accessed December 3, 2008. http://www.gov.mb.ca/agriculture/crops/greenhouse/bng01s04.html

The Vertical Farm Project - Agriculture for the 21st Century and Beyond. 2008. The Vertical Farm Project, Environmental Health Science of Columbia University, New York, NY. Accessed December 3, 2008. http://www.verticalfarm.com/

Contributors

Supporting program, acknowledgements.

The contents of this digital library curriculum were developed under a grant from the Fund for the Improvement of Postsecondary Education (FIPSE), U.S. Department of Education and National Science Foundation GK-12 grant no. 0338326. However, these contents do not necessarily represent the policies of the Department of Education or National Science Foundation, and you should not assume endorsement by the federal government.

Last modified: July 13, 2020

• TILT Higher Ed Examples and Resources

The following resources from the Transparency in Learning and Teaching project (TILT Higher Ed) can help faculty, educational developers and administrators to apply the Transparency Framework (of purpose/task/criteria) in contexts including assignments, curricula, assessment and strategic initiatives, all toward the goal of enhancing student success equitably. If you have developed TILT-focused tools or publications you would like to share, please contact [email protected]

Introduction to Transparency in Learning and Teaching

• Transparency and Problem-centered Learning (7-minute overview)
• Transparent Instruction and Its Impact on Learning, University of Tokyo TV (45 minutes)
• Transparency Framework for academic work
• Unwritten Rules for College Success, 39 second video
• Transparency Framework 1) Purpose, 44 second video
• Transparency Framework 2) Task, 25 second video
• Transparency Framework 3) Criteria, 24 second video
• Nave, Lillian. " Transparent Design with Mary-Ann Winkelmes. " Think UDL, Episode 76, 9 December 2021
• Christopher, K. (2018). "What are we doing and why? Transparent assignment design benefits students and faculty alike." The Flourishing academic: A Blog for teacher-scholars. Duquesne University Center for Teaching Excellence, April 16, 2018.
• Willingham-McLain, L. (2017). Just a TAD: Transparent assignment design. The Flourishing academic: A Blog for teacher-scholars. Duquesne University Center for Teaching Excellence. December 8, 2017.
• Cepek, R. (2017). Parallelograms and poetry: Helping first generation students connect. The Flourishing academic: A Blog for teacher-scholars. Duquesne University Center for Teaching Excellence. October 5, 2017.
• Yong, Darryl. "How Transparency Improves Learning." Teaching Tidbits (Mathematical Association of America blog), October 24, 2017.
• Nichols, Karen. "Remember 'Transparency' in Your Instructional Continuity Preparations." >CAT FooD, August 18, 2017.
• Mulnix, Amy B. "The Power of Transparency in Your Teaching." Faculty Focus: Higher Ed Teaching Strategies, November 6, 2016.
• Gambill, Sandy. "Transparent Assignments." Inclusive Teaching, November 30, 2016.
• Volk, Steven. Revealing the Secret Handshakes: The Rules of Clear Assignment Design." Article of the Week: Teaching and Learning at Oberlin College, September 27, 2015.
• Mary-Ann Winkelmes: "Transparency in Teaching and Learning interview,Smart Talks", Project Information Literacy
• “Small Teaching Changes, Big Learning Benefits” video interview with Mary-Ann Winkelmes, ACUE Community ‘Q’ Blog, Expert Series, December 2016.
• Great Conversations: Mary-Ann Winkelmes video interview at Indiana University (6 min:47 sec - 10 min: 25 sec)
• Faculty at 7 institutions reflect on their use of transparent assignment design (as part of an AAC&U project funded by TG Philanthropy) in the "Transparency and Problem-Centered Learning" issue of Peer Review, (Winter/Spring 2016) vol.18, no. 1/2.
• Faculty at University of Nevada, Las Vegas reflect on their use of transparently designed assignments in “Benefits (some unexpected) of Transparently Designed Assignments.” National Teaching and Learning Forum 24, 4 (May 2015), pages 4-6.
• Faculty at Texas Tech University discuss the design process and impacts of transparent assignments in their courses: Transparent Assignment Design at Texas Tech: A Panel Discussion, 13 th Annual Advancing Teaching and Learning Conference, Texas Tech University, March 3, 2017.
• Fukuda, D. 2018. Promote active learning in group projects through the use of the transparent assignment framework. In Chen, B., deNoyelles, A., & Thompson, K. (Eds.), Teaching Online Pedagogical Repository . Orlando, FL: University of Central Florida Center for Distributed Learning. Retrieved March 4, 2020.
• Turlington, Anita; Shimkus, Jim. (2017). "TILTing the Writing Across the Curriculum Program at UNG."
• Ou, J. (2018, June), Board 75 : Work in Progress: A Study of Transparent Assignments and Their Impact on Students in an Introductory Circuit Course Paper presented at 2018 ASEE Annual Conference & Exposition , Salt Lake City, Utah.
• Kane, J. & Mushtare, R. (Hosts). (2023 May) , Transparency in Learning and Teaching (episode 290). [Audio podcast episode]. In Tea for Teaching. https://teaforteaching.com/290-transparency-in-learning-and-teaching/
• Bruff, D. (Host). (January 2023), Transparent Teaching with Mary-Ann Winkelmes (Episode 5). [Audio podcast episode]. In Intentional Teaching

Example A: Sociology

Example B: Science 101

Example C: Psychology

Example D: Communications

Authors of Examples A-D describe the outcomes of their assignment revisions

Example E: Biology

Discussion Questions (about Examples A-E)

Example F: Library research Assignment

Example G: Criminal Justice In-Class activity

Example H: Criminal Justice Assignment

Example I: Political Science Assignment

Example J: Criteria for Math Writing

Example K - Environmental History

Example L - Calculus

Example M - Algebra

Example N - Finance

• Transparent Assignment Template for instructors
• Checklist for Designing Transparent Assignments
• Measuring Transparency: A Learning-focused Assignment Rubric (Palmer, M., Gravett, E., LaFleur, J.)
• Assignment Cues to use when designing an assignment (adapted from Bloom’s Taxonomy) for faculty
• Transparent Equitable Learning Readiness Assessment for Teachers
• Transparent Assignment Template for students (to help students learn to parse assignments; also to frame a conversation to gather feedback from your students about how to make assignments’ more transparent and relevant for them)
• Transparent Assignment Template for students (to help students learn to parse assignments; also to frame a conversation to gather feedback from your students about how to make assignments more transparent and relevant for them)
• Transparent Equitable Learning Framework for Students (to frame a conversation with students about how to make the purposes, tasks and criteria for class activities transparent and relevant for them)
• TILT and Align Your Assessment
• TILT Strategic Planning Worksheet
• Transparent Equitable Collaboration Framework for Staff
• Unwritten Rules: Transparent Assignment Framework for Students
• Transparent Equitable Learning Framework for Students

Workshop Videos and Slides

For faculty.

• Transparent Assignments Promote Equitable Opportunities for Students’ Success videorecording (University of Nevada, Las Vegas, April 29, 2016).
• Transparent Assignment Design faculty workshop videorecording (“Using Transparent Assignments to Increase Students' Success,” Mary-Ann Winkelmes, keynote workshop, 13th Annual Advancing Teaching and Learning Conference, Texas Tech University, March 3, 2017).
• Part 1) Research findings
• Part 2) Example Assignments
• Part 3) Peer feedback on your own assignments

FOR FACULTY DEVELOPERS

• Faculty workshop slides, Indianapolis Assessment Conference
• TILT Workshop Slides and Notes for Facilitators
• Train the Trainers webinar recording
• NILOA Charrette and Feedback with TILT
• TILT Course Sequencing Worksheet

FOR INSTITUTIONAL LEADERS

• Transparency and Equity webinar recording (hosted by AAC&U, NILOA, TILT)

For institutions, results can include increased retention and completion rates. For participating instructors, individualized reports identify small teaching adjustments best suited to improving students’ learning for the specific population of students in their courses. Ongoing analysis explores teaching/learning adjustments that improve learning outcomes, specific to discipline, class size, level of expertise, and student demographics.

A national study by the Association of American Colleges and Universities, funded by TG Philanthropy, demonstrated that transparency around academic work enhances students’ success at statistically significant levels, with even greater benefits for historically underserved students (with a medium-to-large sized magnitude of effect) [Winkelmes et al., Peer Review 2016]. Students who receive transparent instruction about the purposes, tasks and criteria for their academic work report gains in three areas that are important predictors of students’ success:

• academic confidence,
• sense of belonging, and
• mastery of the skills that employers value most when hiring.

Important studies have already connected academic confidence and sense of belonging with students’ greater persistence and higher grades [Walton and Cohen, Science 2011; Aronson, Fried, Good, 2002, Brady, Cohen, et al., Science Advances 2020. ]

• To bring a Transparency Project workshop to your institution, please contact Mary-Ann Winkelmes at [email protected]
• Frequently asked questions
• Transparent Methods: Examples
• Winkelmes, M. (2023). Introduction to Transparency in Learning and Teaching. Perspectives In Learning, 20 (1). Retrieved from  https://csuepress.columbusstate.edu/pil/vol20/iss1/2
• Brown, J., et al. (2023). Perspectives in Learning: TILT Special Issue, 20 (1). Retrieved from https://csuepress.columbusstate.edu/pil/vol20/iss1/
• Winkelmes, M. (2022). “Assessment in Class Meetings: Transparency Reduces Systemic Inequities.” In Henning, G. W., Jankowski, N. A., Montenegro, E., Baker, G. R., & Lundquist, A. E. (Eds.). (2022). Reframing Assessment to Center Equity: Theories, Models, and Practices. Stylus Publishing, LLC.
• Howard, Tiffiany, Mary-Ann Winkelmes, and Marya Shegog. “ Transparency Teaching in the Virtual Classroom: Assessing the Opportunities and Challenges of Integrating Transparency Teaching Methods with Online Learning.” Journal of Political Science Education, June 2019.
• Palmer, M. S., Gravett, E. O., & LaFleur, J. (2018). Measuring transparency: A learning‐focused assignment rubric . To Improve the Academy, 37(2), 173-187. doi:10.1002/tia2.20083
• Winkelmes, M., Allison Boye and Suzanne Tapp, ed.s. (2019). Transparent Design in Higher Education Teaching and Leadership. Stylus Publishing.
• Humphreys, K., Winkelmes, M.A., Gianoutsos, D., Mendenhall, A., Fields, L.A., Farrar, E., Bowles-Terry, M., Juneau-Butler, G., Sully, G., Gittens, S. Cheek, D. (forthcoming 2018). Campus-wide Collaboration on Transparency in Faculty Development at a Minority-Serving Research University. In Winkelmes, Boye, Tapp, (Eds.), Transparent Design in Higher Education Teaching and Leadership.
• Copeland, D.E., Winkelmes, M., & Gunawan, K. (2018). Helping students by using transparent writing assignments. In T.L. Kuther (Ed.), Integrating Writing into the College Classroom: Strategies for Promoting Student Skills, 26-37. Retrieved from the Society for the Teaching of Psychology website.
• Winkelmes, Mary-Ann, Matthew Bernacki, Jeffrey Butler, Michelle Zochowski, Jennifer Golanics, and Kathryn Harriss Weavil. "A Teaching Intervention that Increases Underserved College Students’ Success."Peer Review (Winter/Spring 2016).
• Transparency and Problem-Centered Learning. (Winter/Spring 2016) Peer Review vol.18, no. 1/2.b
• Winkelmes, Mary-Ann. Small Teaching Changes, Big Learning Benefits.” ACUE Community ‘Q’ Blog, December, 2016.
• Winkelmes, Mary-Ann. “Helping Faculty Use Assessment Data to Provide More Equitable Learning Experiences.” NILOA Guest Viewpoints. Urbana, IL: University of Illinois and Indiana University, National Institute for Learning Outcomes Assessment, March 17, 2016.
• Gianoutsos, Daniel, and Mary-Ann Winkelmes.“Navigating with Transparency: Enhancing Underserved Student Success through Transparent Learning and Teaching in the Classroom and Beyond.” Proceedings of the Pennsylvania Association of Developmental Educators (Spring 2016).
• Sodoma, Brian.“The End of Busy Work.” UNLV Magazine 24,1 (Spring 2016): 16-19.
• Cook, Lisa and Daniel Fusch. One Easy Way Faculty Can Improve Student Success." Academic Impressions (March 10, 2016).
• Head, Alison and Kirsten Hosteller. "Mary-Ann Winkelmes: Transparency in Teaching and Learning," Project Information Literacy, Smart Talk Interview, no. 25. Creative Commons License 3.0 : 2 September 2015.
• Winkelmes, Mary-Ann, et al. David E. Copeland, Ed Jorgensen, Alison Sloat, Anna Smedley, Peter Pizor, Katharine Johnson, and Sharon Jalene. “Benefits (some unexpected) of Transparent Assignment Design.” National Teaching and Learning Forum, 24, 4 (May 2015), 4-6.
• Winkelmes, Mary-Ann. “Equity of Access and Equity of Experience in Higher Education.” National Teaching and Learning Forum, 24, 2 (February 2015), 1-4.
• Cohen, Dov, Emily Kim, Jacinth Tan, Mary-Ann Winkelmes, “A Note-Restructuring Intervention Increases Students’ Exam Scores.” College Teaching vol. 61, no. 3 (2013): 95-99.
• Winkelmes, Mary-Ann."Transparency in Teaching: Faculty Share Data and Improve Students' Learning.” Liberal Education Association of American Colleges and Universities (Spring 2013).
• Winkelmes, Mary-Ann. “Transparency in Learning and Teaching: Faculty and students benefit directly from a shared focus on learning and teaching processes.” NEA Higher Education Advocate (January 2013): 6 - 9.
• Bhavsar, Victoria Mundy. (2020). A Transparent Assignment to Encourage Reading for a Flipped Course, College Teaching, 68:1, 33-44, DOI: 10.1080/87567555.2019.1696740
• Bowles-Terry, Melissa, John C. Watts, Pat Hawthorne, and Patricia Iannuzzi. “ Collaborating with Teaching Faculty on Transparent Assignment Design .” In Creative Instructional Design: Practical Applications for Librarians, edited by Brandon K. West, Kimberly D. Hoffman, and Michelle Costello, 291–311. Atlanta: American Library Association, 2017.
• Leuzinger, Ryne and Grallo, Jacqui, “ Reaching First- Generation and Underrepresented Students through Transparent Assignment Design .” (2019). Library Faculty Publications and Presentations. 11. https://digitalcommons.csumb.edu/lib_fac/11
• Fuchs, Beth, “ Pointing a Telescope Toward the Night Sky: Transparency and Intentionality as Teaching Techniques ” (2018). Library Presentations. 188. https://uknowledge.uky.edu/libraries_present/188
• Ferarri, Franca; Salis, Andreas; Stroumbakis, Kostas; Traver, Amy; and Zhelecheva, Tanya, “ Transparent Problem-Based Learning Across the Disciplines in the Community College Context: Issues and Impacts ” (2015).NERA Conference Proceedings 2015. 9. https://opencommons.uconn.edu/nera-2015/9
• Milman, Natalie B. Tips for Success: The Online Instructor's (Short) Guide to Making Assignment Descriptions More Transparent . Distance Learning. Greenwich  Vol. 15, Iss. 4,  (2018): 65-67. 3

Offer research-based explanations about concepts or tasks that students often struggle to master in your discipline [See examples below including Bloom, Bransford, Gregorc, Light, Perry.]

• Ryjova, Yana. What is the Transparency in Learning and Teaching in Higher Education Project (TILT Higher Ed)? Interview with Dr. Mary-Ann Winkelmes." Hixson-Lied Success Scholar Newsletter. Las Vegas: University of Nevada, Las Vegas, Academic Success Center, March 2016.
• Sodoma, Brian. Forget the What: It's the How and Why That Matters." UNLV News Center, January 21, 2016.
• Summers, Keyonna. “Newsmakers 2015: People.” UNLV News Center, January 7, 2016.
• Berrett, Dan. “The Unwritten Rules of College.” Chronicle of Higher Education, September 21, 2015.
• Adolfo Guzman-Lopez, “Researchers say as college demographics change, so must teaching.” 89.3 KPCC Southern California Public Radio. March 13, 2015.
• “Transparency and Problem-Centered Learning.” Association of American Colleges and Universities website, retrieved November 5, 2014.
• “Mary-Ann Winkelmes and UNLV's Transparency in Teaching and Learning in Higher Education Project.” Accomplishments, UNLV News Center, September 2014.
• “New Project Will Engage Minority-Serving Institutions to Research Effect of Faculty Intentionality in Problem-Centered Educational Practices on the Success of Students Who Have Historically Been Underserved in Higher Education.” Association of American Colleges & Universities press release, August 4, 2014.
• “UNLV Partners with AAC&U to Lead National Project to Improve Under-Represented Students’ Success.” UNLV Research and Economic Development press release. August 7, 2014.
• Mellon grant in partnership with Berea College (2017-2021)
• Robert J. Menges Award for Outstanding Research in Educational Development, 2012, from Professional Organizational Development Network in Higher Education
• TG Philanthropy grant in partnership with Association of American Colleges and Universities(2014-2016)

University of Illinois

• Application to Institutional Review Board, University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign
• Exempt Research Application
• University of Illinois Institutional Review Board Certification of principal investigator
• Collaborative Institutional Training Initiative (CITI) Certification of principal investigator
• Approvals from Institutional Review Board, University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign:
• November 18, 2009
• May 5, 2010
• November 8, 2010
• December 9, 2011
• November 19, 2012
• February 12, 2013

University of Nevada, Las Vegas

• Approvals from Institutional Review Board, University of Nevada, Las Vegas:
• August 23, 2013 Application for Exempt Status and Approval
• November 2014 Modification request, Updated exempt application, Approval
• September 2015 Modification Request and October 13, 2015 Approval
• December 2015 Modification Request and Approval
• July 12 2016 Modification Request and Approval
• July 28, 2016 Modification Request and Approval
• July 28, 2016 Continuing Review Approval
• August 2016 Modification Request and September 1, 2016 Approval
• October 27, 2016 Modification Request and Approval
• March 20, 2017 Modification Request and Approval
• September 2017 Modification Request and Approval
• October 2017 Modification Request and Approval
• February 2018 Modification Request and Approval
• October 2018 Modification Request and Approval
• Principal Investigator's 2013-2018 Collaborative Institutional Training Initiative (CITI) Certification
• Principal Investigator's 2018-2023 Collaborative Institutional Training Initiative (CITI) Certification

Brandeis University

• March 28, 2019 Application for Exempt Status and Approval
• April 18, 2019 Modification Request and Approval
• May 6 2022 Mod and Approval
• Exempt determination through Jun 30 2030

Additional Materials to Support Assignment Design

Organizing Assignment-Design Work on Your Campus: A Tool Kit of Resources and Materials.

A Library of DQP Assignments: Building Capacity for a New Model of Assessment

AAC&U VALUE Rubrics (Valid Assessment of Learning in Undergraduate Education)

Decoding Assignments

Please send to [email protected] any additional materials and resources that you develop and would like to share.

Mary-Ann Winkelmes, Ph.D.

Principal Investigator and Founder, TILT Higher Ed

Copyright © 2009-2023 M.A. Winkelmes. TILT Higher Ed © 2009-2023 by Mary-Ann Winkelmes and materials on this website are licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-ShareAlike 4.0 International License (CC BY-NC-SA 4.0) except where otherwise noted. To view a copy of this license, visit http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc-sa/4.0/

2009-2023 M.A. Winkelmes

TILT Higher Ed © 2009-2023 by Mary-Ann Winkelmes and materials on this website are licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-ShareAlike 4.0 International License (CC BY-NC-SA 4.0) except where otherwise noted. To view a copy of this license, visit http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc-sa/4.0/

Smart Classroom Management

Why Student Modeling Is So Important

Which is why the most effective teachers rely on it more than any other method.

Done correctly, your students will emulate anything and everything you model with remarkable accuracy.

The key is to model in such a way that causes them to picture themselves following the precise path you create for them.

They must be able to visualize completing each step along the way before it can become a reality, which takes not only a skillful performance from you, but also from one of your students.

You see, one of most critical steps to effective modeling is to select a student to follow your example, to mimic your moves down to the very last detail.

Why is this important?

Because it proves to the rest of your class that it can be done. It proves that one of their own can perform the task, routine, or objective as well as the teacher—and without a stitch of help.

It removes any and every excuse before they even have a chance to try it themselves. It makes the statement, far better than anything you can say, that the expectation isn’t to kind-sorta follow your directions , but to mirror them in every respect.

Asking a student to model immediately after you also keeps you sharp and at the top of your game.

When you know that the success of the lesson hinges on how well the chosen student performs, you become hyper-aware of your presentation, striving for clarity, specificity, captivation, and even humor.

As for who to select, the goal is that it shouldn’t matter. The goal is to get to the point in your modeling and classroom management skills that you can pull a name out of a hat.

Some teachers will tell you to only select students you know will perform well. Others say that it’s more powerful to choose among your most challenging students.

The problem with both approaches is that if any one student realizes that they’re unlikely to be chosen, then it will affect their attentiveness .

Knowing that it could be anyone keeps everyone on their toes.

One solution if you’re not yet ready to pick randomly is to have more than one student model—either one after the other or, if possible, together. Group modeling can also be effective.

If you were a fly on the wall of the most effective teachers, those whose students appear so curiously independent, focused, and on task, you would learn that they spend a good portion of their day modeling—and that they’re very, very good at it.

No matter what you teach or what grade level, anything and everything you want your students to be able to do , should be modeled. Every transition. Every task. Every routine and procedure.

Show them what you expect. Lead them from the beginning, through every footfall, to a successful finish.

Then choose a student to check your work, to walk the untrodden path, to let your class know that it’s okay to proceed.

Note: I was interviewed this week by The Teacher’s Digest. If you’re interested, you can find the interview here .

Also, if you haven’t done so already, please join us. It’s free! Click here and begin receiving classroom management articles like this one in your email box every week.

What to read next:

• Why Rules Are More Important Than Consequences
• How To Handle A Student Who Laughs When You Give…
• Why You Shouldn't Correct Student Work
• What To Say To A Needy, Dependent Student
• How To Handle A Student Who Rejects Your Kindness

7 thoughts on “Why Student Modeling Is So Important”

Excellent and to the point. Thank you

You’re welcome, Hanan!

I read your interview – that’s one of the best you’ve given so far. I still don’t understand why teacher education programs and school districts don’t put more emphasis on the importance of classroom management! Thank you for all you are doing to provide the information we need to effectively manage our classrooms, including answering questions and writing articles for this blog. You are a jewel!

It’s my pleasure, Anna! Thank you for your kind words.

Thank you for all of your blog posts. I often find my principles are so aligned with yours, and I come back to ‘center’ myself when things get fuzzy!

It’s my pleasure, Courtney! Glad you’re a regular reader. 🙂

Michael, This is an excellent article. Thank you! I enjoyed reading it.

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Assignment Front Page Format, Design, and PDF File

Today we are sharing the assignment first page format for schools and college students. This format very useful for students for their assignment submission in school, college and university. You can also download this assignment front page design in word file format.

Note: There is a no specific and pre-defined format for assignment cover page. The front page of assignment define by school, college, university, etc. But there is general format for assignment submission which is use globally. You can change or modified this format according to you.

1. Assignment Front Page Format

2. Assignment Cover Page Design

3. Download Assignment Design PDF & Word File

Here you can download the assignment front page format in word download. You can easily download assignment design file and edit it as per your need. You can also find this files in your Microsoft Office. Choose you best assignment front page design and impress your teachers or professors.

Source File & Credit: Microsoft Office

Use Microsoft Word to edit this file. You can easily edit this file in Microsoft Office. Replace the file with your college name, logo, etc.

Assignment is a very crucial part in academic. Your project report front page or assignment first page design play an important role like first impression is last impression. If you impress your processor or teacher then you will score good mark.

See More: General Topics for Presentation

Learning Space

Teachable Moments

Stay Connected

Classroom Activity

Model a solar eclipse.

Students use simple materials to model the basics of a partial, annular, and total solar eclipse.

Large (1-3 feet in diameter) yellow circle or ball to represent the Sun OR a projected image of the Sun

1-inch or 2-inch foam balls OR any small balls, one per student

Pencils, one per student

• The relative sizes of the yellow circle or ball and the foam balls can vary depending on the size of the room and number of students.
• If foam balls are not available, any spherical substitute will work, including aluminum foil balls.
• For young students, insert pencils into the foam balls before distributing them.
• For older students, introduce the lesson by asking students if anyone has ever seen a lunar or solar eclipse. Ask them what causes eclipses. Then, start the lesson at Step 8 below.
• Important safety note! Remind students that they should never look directly at the Sun as it could damage their eyes.

A solar eclipse occurs when the Moon passes between Earth and the Sun, fully or partially blocking the Sun's light from our perspective. Because Earth’s orbit around the Sun and the Moon’s orbit around Earth are not perfect circles, the distances between them change throughout their orbits. During a total eclipse, the distances are such that the Moon covers all of the Sun's disk area.

When the Moon is farther from Earth during an eclipse, it leaves a glowing ring of sunlight shining around the Moon, resulting in an annular eclipse.

Photos of an annular total solar eclipse (left) and a total solar eclipse (right). Credits: Left, Annular Eclipse: Stefan Seip (Oct 3, 2005). Right, Total Eclipse, NASA/Aubrey Gemignani (August 21, 2017) | + Expand image

Sometimes the Moon blocks only a portion of the Sun, creating a partial eclipse that appears like a bite has been taken out of the Sun’s disk.

The Sun appears partially eclipsed in this series of photos taken from NASA’s Johnson Space Center in Houston on August 21, 2017. Credit: NASA/Noah Moran | + Expand image

• Ask students for their prior knowledge about the Moon and eclipses.

Step 2. Image credit: NASA/JPL-Caltech | + Expand image

• Ask students if they’ve ever used anything else to block sunlight. Depending on their answers, ask if they’ve ever used a visor or ducked behind a tree or building to find shade.

Step 4. Image credit: NASA/JPL-Caltech | + Expand image

Step 5. Image credit: NASA/JPL-Caltech | + Expand image

• Ask students what objects they have seen in the sky during the day or at night. Accept all reasonable answers.
• Ask students if any of those objects would be able to block the Sun. If available, hold up toy examples of objects that they’ve named, such as an airplane or bird. If they haven’t already mentioned the Moon, ask if the Moon might be able to block the Sun.
• Distribute the foam balls and pencils, instructing the students to insert their pencil into their foam ball. Explain that the foam ball represents the Moon.
• Does the Moon block the Sun entirely?
• If not, what do they need to do to fully block the Sun?
• Have students stand up and form a circle or semicircle around the Sun. Have them move closer to or farther from the Sun and change the distance between the Moon and their head as needed so that the Moon will block the Sun.
• Discuss with students what happens when the Moon partially and fully blocks the Sun. What do we see from Earth? Explain that we call it a solar eclipse when the Moon blocks either all or part of the Sun.
• Explain to students that their head represents Earth in this model. Show students how the Moon orbits Earth, and have them practice orbiting. Note: the Moon orbits Earth in a counter-clockwise direction as viewed from above the north pole.

Step 13. Image credit: NASA/JPL-Caltech | + Expand image

Step 14. Image credit: NASA/JPL-Caltech | + Expand image

Step 15. Image credit: NASA/JPL-Caltech | + Expand image

Step 16. Image credit: NASA/JPL-Caltech | + Expand image

• What do we see from our perspective on Earth during a total, partial, or annular solar eclipse?
• Students should be able to model a partial, annular, and total eclipse.
• Set up a light to represent the Sun, similar to the setup for the Moon Phases lesson. Have students model a total solar eclipse with this setup.
• Have students model a lunar eclipse – when Earth comes between the Sun and the Moon.
• Check for future eclipses and learn how to safely observe a solar eclipse . Note that this involves either setting up a pinhole camera or securing a class set of eclipse glasses.

Explore More

Eclipse lessons

Explore a collection of standards-aligned lessons all about lunar and solar eclipses.

Subject Science

Time Varies

Moon lessons

Explore a collection of standards-aligned lessons all about the Moon.

Eclipse projects

Explore a collection of student projects all about lunar and solar eclipses.

Moon projects

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MoSCoW Prioritization

What is moscow prioritization.

MoSCoW prioritization, also known as the MoSCoW method or MoSCoW analysis, is a popular prioritization technique for managing requirements. 

  The acronym MoSCoW represents four categories of initiatives: must-have, should-have, could-have, and won’t-have, or will not have right now. Some companies also use the “W” in MoSCoW to mean “wish.”

What is the History of the MoSCoW Method?

Software development expert Dai Clegg created the MoSCoW method while working at Oracle. He designed the framework to help his team prioritize tasks during development work on product releases.

You can find a detailed account of using MoSCoW prioritization in the Dynamic System Development Method (DSDM) handbook . But because MoSCoW can prioritize tasks within any time-boxed project, teams have adapted the method for a broad range of uses.

How Does MoSCoW Prioritization Work?

Before running a MoSCoW analysis, a few things need to happen. First, key stakeholders and the product team need to get aligned on objectives and prioritization factors. Then, all participants must agree on which initiatives to prioritize.

At this point, your team should also discuss how they will settle any disagreements in prioritization. If you can establish how to resolve disputes before they come up, you can help prevent those disagreements from holding up progress.

Finally, you’ll also want to reach a consensus on what percentage of resources you’d like to allocate to each category.

With the groundwork complete, you may begin determining which category is most appropriate for each initiative. But, first, let’s further break down each category in the MoSCoW method.

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Moscow prioritization categories.

1. Must-have initiatives

As the name suggests, this category consists of initiatives that are “musts” for your team. They represent non-negotiable needs for the project, product, or release in question. For example, if you’re releasing a healthcare application, a must-have initiative may be security functionalities that help maintain compliance.

The “must-have” category requires the team to complete a mandatory task. If you’re unsure about whether something belongs in this category, ask yourself the following.

If the product won’t work without an initiative, or the release becomes useless without it, the initiative is most likely a “must-have.”

2. Should-have initiatives

Should-have initiatives are just a step below must-haves. They are essential to the product, project, or release, but they are not vital. If left out, the product or project still functions. However, the initiatives may add significant value.

“Should-have” initiatives are different from “must-have” initiatives in that they can get scheduled for a future release without impacting the current one. For example, performance improvements, minor bug fixes, or new functionality may be “should-have” initiatives. Without them, the product still works.

3. Could-have initiatives

Another way of describing “could-have” initiatives is nice-to-haves. “Could-have” initiatives are not necessary to the core function of the product. However, compared with “should-have” initiatives, they have a much smaller impact on the outcome if left out.

So, initiatives placed in the “could-have” category are often the first to be deprioritized if a project in the “should-have” or “must-have” category ends up larger than expected.

4. Will not have (this time)

One benefit of the MoSCoW method is that it places several initiatives in the “will-not-have” category. The category can manage expectations about what the team will not include in a specific release (or another timeframe you’re prioritizing).

Placing initiatives in the “will-not-have” category is one way to help prevent scope creep . If initiatives are in this category, the team knows they are not a priority for this specific time frame. 

Some initiatives in the “will-not-have” group will be prioritized in the future, while others are not likely to happen. Some teams decide to differentiate between those by creating a subcategory within this group.

How Can Development Teams Use MoSCoW?

  Although Dai Clegg developed the approach to help prioritize tasks around his team’s limited time, the MoSCoW method also works when a development team faces limitations other than time. For example: 

Prioritize based on budgetary constraints.

What if a development team’s limiting factor is not a deadline but a tight budget imposed by the company? Working with the product managers, the team can use MoSCoW first to decide on the initiatives that represent must-haves and the should-haves. Then, using the development department’s budget as the guide, the team can figure out which items they can complete. 

Prioritize based on the team’s skillsets.

A cross-functional product team might also find itself constrained by the experience and expertise of its developers. If the product roadmap calls for functionality the team does not have the skills to build, this limiting factor will play into scoring those items in their MoSCoW analysis.

Prioritize based on competing needs at the company.

Cross-functional teams can also find themselves constrained by other company priorities. The team wants to make progress on a new product release, but the executive staff has created tight deadlines for further releases in the same timeframe. In this case, the team can use MoSCoW to determine which aspects of their desired release represent must-haves and temporarily backlog everything else.

What Are the Drawbacks of MoSCoW Prioritization?

  Although many product and development teams have prioritized MoSCoW, the approach has potential pitfalls. Here are a few examples.

1. An inconsistent scoring process can lead to tasks placed in the wrong categories.

  One common criticism against MoSCoW is that it does not include an objective methodology for ranking initiatives against each other. Your team will need to bring this methodology to your analysis. The MoSCoW approach works only to ensure that your team applies a consistent scoring system for all initiatives.

Pro tip: One proven method is weighted scoring, where your team measures each initiative on your backlog against a standard set of cost and benefit criteria. You can use the weighted scoring approach in ProductPlan’s roadmap app .

2. Not including all relevant stakeholders can lead to items placed in the wrong categories.

To know which of your team’s initiatives represent must-haves for your product and which are merely should-haves, you will need as much context as possible.

For example, you might need someone from your sales team to let you know how important (or unimportant) prospective buyers view a proposed new feature.

One pitfall of the MoSCoW method is that you could make poor decisions about where to slot each initiative unless your team receives input from all relevant stakeholders. 

3. Team bias for (or against) initiatives can undermine MoSCoW’s effectiveness.

Because MoSCoW does not include an objective scoring method, your team members can fall victim to their own opinions about certain initiatives. 

One risk of using MoSCoW prioritization is that a team can mistakenly think MoSCoW itself represents an objective way of measuring the items on their list. They discuss an initiative, agree that it is a “should have,” and move on to the next.

But your team will also need an objective and consistent framework for ranking all initiatives. That is the only way to minimize your team’s biases in favor of items or against them.

When Do You Use the MoSCoW Method for Prioritization?

MoSCoW prioritization is effective for teams that want to include representatives from the whole organization in their process. You can capture a broader perspective by involving participants from various functional departments.

Another reason you may want to use MoSCoW prioritization is it allows your team to determine how much effort goes into each category. Therefore, you can ensure you’re delivering a good variety of initiatives in each release.

What Are Best Practices for Using MoSCoW Prioritization?

If you’re considering giving MoSCoW prioritization a try, here are a few steps to keep in mind. Incorporating these into your process will help your team gain more value from the MoSCoW method.

1. Choose an objective ranking or scoring system.

Remember, MoSCoW helps your team group items into the appropriate buckets—from must-have items down to your longer-term wish list. But MoSCoW itself doesn’t help you determine which item belongs in which category.

You will need a separate ranking methodology. You can choose from many, such as:

• Weighted scoring
• Value vs. complexity
• Buy-a-feature
• Opportunity scoring

For help finding the best scoring methodology for your team, check out ProductPlan’s article: 7 strategies to choose the best features for your product .

2. Seek input from all key stakeholders.

To make sure you’re placing each initiative into the right bucket—must-have, should-have, could-have, or won’t-have—your team needs context. 

At the beginning of your MoSCoW method, your team should consider which stakeholders can provide valuable context and insights. Sales? Customer success? The executive staff? Product managers in another area of your business? Include them in your initiative scoring process if you think they can help you see opportunities or threats your team might miss. 

3. Share your MoSCoW process across your organization.

MoSCoW gives your team a tangible way to show your organization prioritizing initiatives for your products or projects. 

The method can help you build company-wide consensus for your work, or at least help you show stakeholders why you made the decisions you did.

Communicating your team’s prioritization strategy also helps you set expectations across the business. When they see your methodology for choosing one initiative over another, stakeholders in other departments will understand that your team has thought through and weighed all decisions you’ve made. 

If any stakeholders have an issue with one of your decisions, they will understand that they can’t simply complain—they’ll need to present you with evidence to alter your course of action.  

Related Terms

2×2 prioritization matrix / Eisenhower matrix / DACI decision-making framework / ICE scoring model / RICE scoring model

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