Challenges and Problems When asked to reflect on the challenges and problems they encountered in working with Understanding

by Design, high-level users consistently identified the following themes and issues:

The critical need for educators to have time to reflect on what the UbD framework suggests about modifying existing practices and to try out various aspects of the backward design process in their classrooms. The inevitable issues that emerge with any change initiative or variable in educational settings, particularly a change that can be as challenging and sometimes threatening as UbD. Cited were staff members' resistance, confusion, and ambivalence to a framework that requires them to think and operate at a deep conceptual level. The very real dichotomy that exists in many schools and districts related to high-stakes accountability testing, including educators' misperceptions about the need to cover the curriculum and touch on everything that might be on the test. The challenge of moving UbD implementation beyond initial adopters and cheerleaders to include staff members who may be resistant, who may be fence-sitters, or who are hostile to new and provocative ideas. The need to make UbD implementation a long-term initiative that involves all organizational stakeholders, particularly administrators, who must become genuine instructional leaders and must clearly articulate the alignment between and among UbD and other accountability initiatives within their school or district. The need to collect, analyze, and disseminate achievement data related to high levels of UbD use, particularly in light of current federal imperatives for any educational initiative to have a solid, empirical, scientifically confirmed research base.

Q. What do you consider to be the greatest challenges presented by Understanding by Design? A. Time and facilitation. Our greatest challenges have occurred in areas that have been traditionally skills-oriented [such as reading in primary grades and math in secondary grades]. A. Everyone within the system needs to be trained for maximum effectiveness. It should not be offered as a workshop for teachers only. A. Having limited time to train staffs for a complete understanding of the process. One- or twoday workshops without follow-up rarely are effective in improving or changing teachers' planning process. Every group always wants more time. I frequently feel overviews provide little time to check for understanding of the process or to respond to misunderstandings of questions about the three stages [of backward design]. Teachers need to complete a unit design and go through a peer review to have a basic understanding of what UbD is all about. This is impossible to do in a one- or two-day workshop. A. Too many one-shot, inoculation trainings are being done where teachers are expected to walk out of one, two, or three days of training with enough understanding of UbD to change their

professional practice. On top of it, they are expected to make these changes without any followup or support and under the watchful eye of someone who is the unit police and who knows the same or less than the teachers do about UbD. A. UbD lacks empirical data. It's also hard to get people to make the shift from teaching facts and covering the content[people] who either are not very bright or have spent years doing the other strategies and calling it teaching. A. Not enough research-based data that show [UbD] improves student learning. People want to know that it improves student learning. They want to quantify it. A. [The greatest challenge is] rethinking one's approach to curriculum design and moving from coverage to uncoverage. A. The greatest challenges involve breaking through the mind-set of traditional education. In [the United States], textbook- or activity-driven lessons head nowhere. We need [to help] teachers to have the courage to select the most important work that students should do and refine the lessons over time to improve results. A. The greatest strength is also the greatest challenge. Teachers will ask, Why are we spending all of this time in Stage One? They need to understand how important Stage One is. It is not about activities or coverage. Teachers don't want to put in so much up-front design time. A. The design is very complexnot easily understood or applied. When something this complex is added to existing responsibilities, it takes a long time to digest the information and apply it appropriately. A. It is relatively complex. People do not think in terms of big ideas. Therefore, the more sharing, models, and support, the better. A. [There is] too much emphasis on unit design. The UbD framework can also structure curriculum and districtwide decision making. A. Our greatest challenge is to continue the work of lesson study. After the next museum night, we are planning a critical friend protocol of looking at student work schoolwide to determine quality. A. UbD work is difficult and requires constant revision, particularly for teachers who have to unlearn their prior practice. It can be time consuming (especially up front), and if not done correctly, teachers may not see the immediate rewards and [may] revert to past practice.