PISMP TESL

EDUP3063 ASSESSMENT IN EDUCATION

Topic 5
Unwrapping Standards
and Constructive Alignment
 LEARNING OUTCOME

5. Unwrapping Standards and

Constructive Alignment

5.2 Constructive
5.1 Unwrapping Standards
Alignment

5.1.1 Concept of 5.1.2 Process 5.2.1 Concept 5.2.2 Process

unwrapping of unwrapping of Constructive of Constructive
standards standards Alignment Alignment
5.1 Unwrapping Standards
 5.1 Unwrapping Standards
• Standard
 General expectations of what students should know and be able to
do.

• Concept
 An abstract idea that points to a larger set of understandings, (e.g.,
peace, democracy, culture, perimeter, etc.)

• Content
Information students need to know in a given standard, its related
indicators, or entire course of study
 5.1 Unwrapping Standards
• Unwrapping
Analysing/Examining standard and related indicators to
determine exactly what students need to know
(concepts or content), be able to do (skills) through
particular context or topic (selected learning activities –
what teachers will use to teach concepts and skills).

• Indicator
Learning outcomes of a subject for a specific level.
5.1.1 Concept
5.1.1 Concept
of unwrapping
of Unwrapping
the standards
Standards
• Standards in the curriculum document refers to statements
regarding what students need to know and can do after they
have learned a topic or unit in a subject.
• How far teachers understand the standards contained in the
curriculum document and hence are able to plan suitable
teaching and learning as well as assessment so that
knowledge and skills in the standards can be attained by the
students?
• One of the ways that can be used by the teachers is to
“unwrap” the standards.
 5.1.1 Concept of Unwrapping Standards
• Before starting the standard unwrapping process, teachers
should refer to the curriculum document prepared by the
Ministry of Education Malaysia. The Assessment and
Curriculum Standards Document (DSKP – Dokumen Standard
Kurikulum dan Pentaksiran) was prepared by the Ministry of
Education Malaysia for each subject.
• These documents contain three types of standards, namely
- Content Standards
- Learning Standards
- Performance Standards
 Content
5.1.1 Standards
Concept of Unwrapping Standards
• Content standards represent the specific statements
explaining what students should know and be able to do in
each level of learning. These standards cover the knowledge,
skills and value aspects.
• Learning Standards are fixed criteria or indicators of
performance and learning qualities which can be measured
for each content standards. They are specific statements
which detail the specific skills and knowledge that need to
be attained in order to fulfill a particular Content Standard.
 5.1.1 Concept of Unwrapping Standards
• Example: Number Computation
Standard: Students use numerical and
computational concepts and procedures in a
variety of situations.
Indicator: Number sense: The student
demonstrates number sense for three-digit
whole numbers and simple fractions in a variety
of situations.
 5.1.1 Concept of Unwrapping Standards
• Example: English
 5.1.1 Concept of Unwrapping Standards
• Performance standards clarify content standards by describing
what evidence is acceptable in determining whether content
standards have been met.
- Use clear descriptions to describe quality work.
- Include concrete examples
- Include explanations of how well students must learn or
demonstrate the content, explaining "how good is good enough"
• Performance standards identify skills needed for problem-solving,
reasoning, communicating, and making connections with other
information.
• Performance standards are used to evaluate what specific,
measurable evidence is acceptable in determining whether
content standards have been met.
 5.1.1 Concept of Unwrapping Standards
• Performance standard
Some examples of activities through which students
might produce evidence of reading aloud accurately:
Reading aloud to peers or younger children.
Participating in a Readers’ Theater production.
Recording an audiotape or videotape an example of
reading aloud.
 5.1.1 Concept of Unwrapping Standards

•Using the unwrapping process will

enable teachers to have a deeper
understanding of the standards they
teach, and the students will be more
engaged in their learning.
 5.1.2 Process of Unwrapping Standard

There are four key steps to unwrapping

standards:
Step 1: Identify key concepts and skills
Step 2: Create Graphic Organizer
Step 3: Identify Big Ideas
Step 4: Write Essential Questions
 Step 1: Identify Key Concepts and Skills

Identify what students need to know (content) and

what they need to do (skills).
For instance:
•Underline nouns (concepts) (What student need to
know)
•Circle verbs (skills) (What students are able to do)
 Step 1: Identify Key Concepts and Skills
Example:
• Content standard: Produce clear and coherent writing in
which the development, organization and style are
appropriate to task, purpose, and audience.

 Underline the nouns (concepts) and circle the verbs (skills).

• Produce clear and coherent writing in which the development,
organization and style are appropriate to task, purpose, and
audience.
 Step 1: Identify Key Concepts and Skills
• Example: Write narratives to develop real or imagined
experiences or events using effective technique, descriptive
details, and clear event sequences.

• Concept: Effective technique

Descriptive details
Clear event sequences
• Skills: Write narratives
Develop experiences or events
 Step 2: Create Graphic Organizer

• Represent the “unwrapped” concepts and skills on a

graphic organizer
• Choose whichever type of graphic organizer which
works best for you:
-- outline
-- bulleted list
-- concept map
etc.
 Step 2: Create Graphic Organizer
Example of graphic organizer in Mathematics:
Concepts: Number Computation
Number sense
• Three-digit whole numbers
• Simple fractions
Number Systems and their Properties
• Simple fractions (fourths, thirds, Hlves)
• Three-digit whole numbers
• Place value
Estimation
• Numerical estimation
• Whole numbers to 999
• Simple fractions
• Money
 Step 3: Identify Big Ideas
• The next step is to list the conceptual understandings that
students discover during the learning process (the ah-ha!
moments).
• Big ideas are important understandings – What you want
students to discover on their own – The main ideas or essential
understandings!
• Big idea is an open-ended, enduring idea (lasting for a long
time) that may apply to more than one area of study.
• Student-worded statement derived from a deep understanding
of the concepts and skills just studied.
 Step 3: Identify Big Ideas

• Big ideas – What students need to understand

• Example: Big ideas derived from “unwrapped” Mathematics
standard:
Numbers can represent different quantities or amounts.
Fractions represent quantities less than, equal to, or
greater than one whole.
The position of a digit determines its value in a number.
Estimation comes close to an exact number.
 Step 4: Write Essential Questions
• Essential questions: What questions will guide learners to
understand?
• Essential questions are shared with students at the
beginning of the lesson.
• Purpose:
 To focus and guide classroom instruction and assessment;
to stimulate student interest and make new connections.
 To establish student learning goal – to be able to answer
or respond to the Essential Questions with student-worded
Big Ideas by end of the lesson.
 Step 4: Write Essential Questions
• Questions are open-ended -- Craft questions to have more than
one possible response or to generate discussion when different
or conflicting ideas are presented.
• Cannot be answered with “yes” or “no” or with simple recall of
facts – Should encourage students to think.
• Teachers’ role in this process is to facilitate thinking and
discussion, not to validate.
• Essential questions should focus on higher order thinking skills
– Use “How” and “Why”
• Often written as “one-two punch” questions:
Examples: “What are literary devices? Why do authors use
them?”
• Big Ideas should be able to answer Essential Questions.
 Step 4: Write Essential Questions
• Examples of Essential Questions with Big Ideas:
1. What are numbers? How do we use them?
(Numbers can represent different quantities or amounts)
2. What is a fraction? What is its relationship to a whole number?
(Fractions represent quantities less than, equal to, or greater
than one whole)
3. Why isn’t a digit always worth the same amount?
(The position of a digit determines its value in a number)
4. What is estimation? When and how do we use it?
(Estimation comes close to an exact number. Whether you
estimate or find the actual answer depends on the situation)
 5.1.2 Process of Unwrapping Standard

Examples of the process of unwrapping standard:

• Subject: Science
• Topic: Infectious Diseases and Non-infectious Diseases
• Subtopic: The Cause and Transmission of Infectious
Diseases
• Content standard: At the end of the lesson students are
able to explain the cause and transmission of infectious
diseases.
 5.1.2 Process of Unwrapping Standard
• Learning standard (Indicator): Students are able to explain:
(a) how diseases are transmitted through:
(i) water; (ii) air; (iii) touch; (iv) vector
(b) How to prevent the transmission of infectious diseases.

• Concept (knowledge):
Pathogen is a microorganism capable of causing a disease.
Not all microorganisms are pathogens.
Vector is a living organism that carries pathogens from an infected person to
another person.
Infectious diseases are spread by pathogens that cause diseases.
 5.1.2 Process of Unwrapping Standard
Examples of infectious diseases are influenza, ringworm, cholera,
dengue, Zika, typhoid, malaria and leptospirosis.
The pathogens can be transmitted from an infected person to
another person through water, air, physical contact and vectors.

• Skills: Students are able to:

Name the cause of the following infectious diseases: Cholera, TB,
H1N1, SARS, influenza, Tinea versicolor, ringworm, dengue, malaria,
Zika, leptospirosis,
Explain how the following infectious diseases are spread: Cholera, TB,
H1N1, SARS, influenza, Tinea versicolor, ringworm, dengue, malaria,
Zika, leptospirosis,
 5.1.2 Process of Unwrapping Standard
Context (Topic or content):
Introduce the concept of infectious diseases.
Name some infectious diseases.
Explain how infectious diseases are spread.
Explain how infectious diseases transmitted.
 5.1.2 Process of Unwrapping Standard
• Big Ideas:
Cholera is spread through water contaminated by bacteria.
TB is caused by bacteria.
H1N1 and SARS are caused by virus.
Influenza may be caused by virus or bacteria.
Tinea versicolor is caused by a type of fungus.
Ringworm (Tinea corporis) is caused by a type of fungus and spreads
through direct contact of the skin of an infected person.
Dengue, malaria and Zika are transmitted by mosquitoes.
Leptospirosis is transmitted by rats (i.e., rats are the vectors for
leptospirosis).
 5.1.2 Process of Unwrapping Standard
• Essential questions:
Are all microorganisms pathogens? Why do you say so?
(Not all microorganisms are pathogens. There are some good bacteria that
act on food waste in the large intestine and produce vitamins B12 and K).
How leptospirosis is spread?
(Leptospirosis is spread through rats)
Suggest an effective way to prevent leptospirosis in an area with high
population of rats. Why it is effective?
(Campaign to destroy the dirty place which becomes the habitat of rats.
Dirty place provides a suitable habitat for rats to reproduce. When the
habitats of the rats are destroyed, their breeding place and source of food
also decreases.)
 5.1.2 Process of Unwrapping Standard
What are the two common diseases that frequently spread during
and after a flood? How do the pathogens of these diseases go into
our bodies?
(Cholera and typhoid are two diseases frequently spread during and
after flood. During floods, sewage and bodies of dead animals may
contaminate the water sources; When the food is not processed or
cooked well, pathogens that stay alive in the food can find their way
into a person’s stomach and intestines; When a person does not
clean and sanitize his (or her) hands properly after using the toilet,
pathogens may spread to anything he (or she) touches including the
food.)
 5.2 Constructive Alignment

• According to constructivism, students construct knowledge

through relevant teaching and learning activities.
• Teacher’s task is to facilitate student learning and provide
learning environment which supports learning activities so
that learning outcomes can be achieved.
• Finally, teachers should choose assessment task which can
measure the achievement of learning outcomes for each
students.
 5.2.1 Concept
Concept of Constructive
of Constructive Alignment
Alignment
• “When planning a curriculum, we first have to be clear about what we want
our students to learn, and then teach and assess accordingly in an aligned
system of instruction” (Biggs, 1996).
• “Constructive” implies that students are given opportunity to learn by
constructing knowledge based on their experiences and learning
environment.
• “Alignment” implies the continuity between objectives, curriculum,
teaching and learning activities as well as assessment. All these must be
organized so that they match or fit well together.
• The outcomes define what we should be teaching; how we should be
teaching it; and how we could know how well students have learned it.
• The assessment tasks address the outcomes, so that you can test to see if,
and how well the students have learned what they should be learning.
• Assessment is about how well students achieve the intended outcomes,
not about how well they report back to us what we have told them.
 5.2.1 Concept of Constructive Alignment
Concept of Constructive Alignment
• “A good teaching system aligns teaching method and
assessment to the learning activities stated in the
objectives so that all aspects of this system are in
accord in supporting appropriate student learning.”
(Seigel, 2004).
 5.2.1 Concept
Constructive of Constructive Alignment
Alignment
Benefits of constructive alignment
• It provides a conceptual framework for planning
education quality work.
• It can be extended to other areas of learning/
development, such as career planning,
organizational planning, etc.
• It can lead to better results.
 Concept of Constructive
5.2.1 Concept Alignment
of Constructive Alignment
• Why constructive?
 The emphasis is on student learning. Student construct
their own meaning and apply the knowledge learnt in
particular contexts.
 It is functioning knowledge rather than declarative
knowledge (Deep rather than surface learning)
 5.2.1 Concept of Constructive Alignment
• The principle underlying constructive alignment:
 Focusing attention on what students are learning
 Seeking alignment between what students are intended to
learn, the means by which learning is promoted and the
criteria on which achievement is judged.
 Encouraging students to understand how, when, what and
why they are learning.
 5.2.2 Process of Constructive Alignment
• Four steps in constructive alignment:
1. Define learning outcomes that are required.
2. Choose appropriate teaching and learning activities
to achieve learning outcomes.
3. Assess actual attainment of student learning
outcomes to determine extent of achievement
4. Determine the final grade and give feedback to
improve student learning.
 Step 1: Define learning outcomes
• Learning outcomes must be defined specifically, which show what the
students need to know and the skills needed to acquire.
• Learning outcomes are stated in the form of student’s behaviour.
• Student behavior should be:
- measurable
- observable
- able to be carried out by students
• Examples of learning outcomes:
- Draw a regular pentagon …
- Calculate the area of ….
 Step 2: Choose suitable teaching and learning
activities
• The choice of teaching method must take into consideration
the learning outcomes that the students need to achieve.
• Ensure that students are able to construct meaning in their
learning.
 Step 3: Assessing learning outcomes

• Assessment task should be aligned with the learning outcomes and

the chosen teaching method.
• The task should be able to measure the learning outcomes need to
be achieved effectively.
• Assessment task should be authentic so that it can measure various
learning outcomes including higher order thinking skills.
• Assessment task should be able to provide information regarding
the achievement of the students.
 Step 4: Grading and Feedback
• Grading is used in assessment task in order to know student
performance.
• Besides grading, continuous feedback is important in
student learning and teacher teaching.
• Feedback from the assessment enables teachers to evaluate
the effectiveness of their teaching and learning, and the
achievement of learning outcomes.
• For students, continuous feedback will give them useful
information to enhance their learning.
• Unwrapping standards and construct alignment
processes can increase the validity and the reliability
of assessment since the teachers always ensure that
they teach based on the standard and what they
teach will be measured, and information obtained
from the assessment will be used to enhance their
teaching and student learning.