The excitement in the Administration Building meeting room was palpable Tuesday evening as a group of teachers described their experiences applying the “Understanding by Design” educational theory in their classrooms.

“One of the core beliefs of Understanding by Design is that you don’t really understand something until you actually do it on your own and solve problems with it,” said Superintendent of Schools Dr. Robert Feirsen at the Board of Education work session.

One of Dr. Feirsen’s goals for next year is to expand the number of teachers using “Understanding by Design” and related models for instruction that promote critical thinking. He is excited about UbD because he believes it helps solve what he calls “the problem of amnesia,” where students do not retain the material they learned, sometimes as recently as the previous day. “There’s a tremendous amount of time that we spend trying to make up for things that they should have learned,” he explained.

UbD, which was written by Grant Wiggins and Jay McTighe, provides several key beliefs about the nature of learning. One of the basic tenets is that learning is achieved by using the knowledge and skills taught on worthy tasks in everyday situations. It is also essential to understand the larger ideas first that connect the less important or isolated facts.

The group of teachers who attended the work session received special training and now serve as turnkey trainers to other faculty members. In addition, all new teachers receive an introduction in UbD over the summer. According to Dr. Feirsen, many are already familiar with UbD and its “backward” approach to learning. Those who follow this design first identify the desired results. Next, the educator decides what tasks to perform and tests to administer to assess student achievement. The last stage is to plan the actual learning activities.

“To design a unit like this really takes a lot of intensive thought,” Dr. Feirsen said. “It’s simple but complex.”

UbD can be applied to curriculum in almost every subject, and several teachers described how they use it in their classrooms. Paris Zaferiou, who teaches science in the Middle School, said it has helped her become a better teacher. She tries to break a particular subject down into the core essentials for students and helps them apply what they have learned to solve real-life problems.