What We Think of Ubd

At first UbD was not an attractive methodology for me, I did not understand exactly how to incorporate it into the kind of learning activities that I normally have to develop. However, as I became more familiar with it and understood the intent of the methodology, I realized that UbD is an excellent tool for designing curricula and learning activities that require the development of a deep concept understanding.

It is an excellent methodology to use in the process of developing curricula or learning activities in formal education settings such as schools and universities. Adults who have gone through a not well designed learning experiences can draw on their past experiences and cognitive strategies to seek to understand what the application of acquired knowledge might be in other contexts. However, this is more difficult to achieve in children and young people, so a design that takes into account how to bring the learner to that understanding is important.

It is very common to hear students saying that schoolwork and classes are uninteresting and have little relevance to their lives. I think that UbD is a great design tool to develop curricula and classes that provides authentic learning activities that take class material into the real world and help students not to just pass a test but to understand how that knowledge could be applicable to their lives.

UbD would not be my first choice for the design of learning experiences, since most of the training I design is aimed at technical skills or where becoming familiar with the concepts is enough.