This is the second of three workshops that form a series on pedagogical issues; the others are “Learning-Centered Teaching” and “ABC course design”.
Constructive alignment is an approach to creating an educational environment in which students construct their own learning through relevant learning activities. This workshop aims at coherence between teaching methods and activities, evaluation, and intended learning outcomes in an educational programme. The instructor’s task is to align these three dimensions.
In contrast to traditional approaches, where content to be transferred is defined first, under constructive alignment the teacher first defines learning outcomes (what should students be able to do at the end of the course?), then assessment methods (how are the learning outcomes verified?) and only in the end teaching and learning activities. In this way, teaching and learning are geared towards skills and competences that mobilize knowledge, rather than the other way around.
The learning outcomes are the following:
- understand the core dimensions of constructive alignment;
- outline learning outcomes, assessment methods, and teaching activities such that alignment is optimized; and
- use the approach to identify the core elements of a new or revised course