Education Commons^™

Sequencing A Literature Review Paper, Peter Smith

Backward by Design Mini-Studies

In Fall 2013, I attended the Backwards by Design workshop sponsored by the Writing Instruction Center and led by Carmen Werder and Shevell Thibou. At that time I was just beginning to think about a new course, LIBR 320: Archives and Special Collections Studies. The purpose of the course is to engage students with the primary sources available in the Heritage Resources unit of Western Libraries, including the Center for Pacific Northwest Studies, Special Collections, and University Archives. Using the collections, students gain knowledge of and respect towards the institutions of special collections and archives globally, experiencing them locally.

Learning …

Assessment Project Write-Up: Phil 112, Ethical Question Activity, Michelle Saint

Backward by Design Mini-Studies

I regularly teach Phil 112: Introduction to Moral Issues. This is a 100-level, 3 credit hour course that is intended to introduce students to philosophy in general and the study of ethics in particular. One of the most significant goals I have for the course is getting students to understand how to engage in ethical inquiry. I don’t want them to learn just the content of ethical theories that other people have previously developed; I want them to develop the skills that will permit them to engage in ethical inquiry themselves. The most significant threshold concepts covered in this class …

Reinforcement By Error Analysis Of Multiple: Threshold Concepts In Advanced Spanish Composition, Sean Dwyer

Backward by Design Mini-Studies

This year, I taught a course in advanced Spanish grammar, Spanish 302. This course provided me with an opportunity to build on a procedure I developed and refined in the Backwards by Design writing instruction workshops in 2012 and 2013 for emphasizing one of the threshold concepts in basic Spanish, noun-adjective agreement. This year’s enhanced procedure, which could not be implemented easily at the 100 level, is proving to serve as a gateway to greater understanding on the part of my students of their individual strengths and weaknesses.

Backwards By Design 2013/2014 Assessment Project, Jasmine Goodnow

Backward by Design Mini-Studies

The Backwards by Design workshop inspired me to think deeply about how to construct meaningful assignments that would help students learn not only content and knowledge but application and deep understanding. I wanted to create enduring understanding that students would apply in their careers. Tourism can be a tool for social, environmental, and economic justice; however, this is not part of the current tourism industry’s paradigm. Thus, my task is to teach course curriculum through the lens of justice, not capitalism. REC 379 Foundations of Ecotourism is a course about the history, concepts, principles, marketing, and planning of ecotourism. I …

Backwards By Design, Summer 2013 Retreat Assessment, Matt Holtmeier

Backward by Design Mini-Studies

At the 2013 TLA retreat, the main task I set for myself was building a new course around the film and television of the Pacific Northwest. The main challenge of this course was how to create a syllabus centered on the media of a ‘region’ rather than a particular concept or genre. The guiding question for developing this course was what aspects of the Pacific Northwest films and television were able to contribute to. Since our retreat was focused on 'threshold concepts,' and this course was primarily focused on content rather than skills (studying media of the region as opposed …