Constructive alignment is an approach to course design that prioritizes clear, measurable learning goals or outcomes, which are explicitly linked to corresponding assessments and activities. This approach, first described in a 1996 article by educational psychologist John Biggs, aims to make learning goals or outcomes more transparent to students and to highlight the student’s active role in the learning process. According to Biggs, “A good teaching system aligns teaching method and assessment to the learning activities stated in the objectives, so that all aspects of the system are in accord in supporting appropriate student learning.” (Biggs, 1999, p. 11).
Constructive alignment not only gives students a useful overview of course content and scope, but it also enables instructors to ensure that they’re providing students adequate practice and preparation for assessments. Moreover, it ensures that instructors themselves are clear on the function of each assessment and the way in which each assessment and activity supports the course’s learning goals or outcomes.
To ensure goals align with assessments and activities, instructors should begin course planning by reflecting on their aims for the course and identifying the knowledge and skills they want students to acquire or develop during the course.
Next, instructors should design assessments that will allow them to be assured that learning has taken place. According to the Constructive Alignment approach (CA), only then should instructors design the activities, exercises, and experiences that will facilitate the learning they wish students to demonstrate in their assessments.
In 1998, Grant Wiggins and Jay McTighe developed a systematic approach to developing courses according to this process, which they termed “Understanding by Design” (sometimes called “backward design” because it starts with course goals or outcomes and works backward to learning experiences).
In a Chronicle of Higher Education article on how to create a syllabus, History professor Kevin Gannon (2020) explains how he uses this approach. Note that the terminology varies among instructors and institutions. Here, Prof. Gannon begins with a high-level “goal,” and then identifies an “objective” that supports that goal:
Gannon continues, “In a well-aligned course, goals, objectives, assessments, and activities act like a set of Russian nesting dolls, the smaller resting neatly within the larger.”
Constructive alignment ultimately helps ensure that instructors are explicitly communicating not just course themes but the mechanics of the learning process. This clarity and explicit detail can be very supportive for students—especially those students who might have academic skill gaps or who need additional academic support.
For those interested in learning more, we suggest the following resources, which offer comprehensive insights into both constructive alignment and backward design, as well as broader perspectives on course design:
Biggs, John. 1999. Teaching for Quality Learning at University: What the Student Does. 1st ed. Philadelphia: Society for Research into Higher Education: Open University Press. Available in the CTSE Lending Library
Gannon, K. (2020, January 23). How to create a syllabus. The Chronicle of Higher Education. https://www.chronicle.com/article/how-to-create-a-syllabus/?sra=true
