Instead of asking, “What activity should we do today?”, teachers are asking, “Which achievement standards must students reach, and how will we know they’ve met them?”
Today, July 24, inside the PTTC seminar rooms, Cambodian STEM teachers are flipping their lesson-planning paradigm completely upside down.
Day 3: The Most Crucial Turning Point of the Seminar
We are officially halfway through the 5-day Face-to-Face Seminar (Stage 1) of the STEP UP CPD program.
Following Day 1’s focus on the integration of technology for teaching and learning (including tools like H5P and Google Classroom) and Day 2’s deep dive into Teachers’ Curriculum Literacy, today marks the absolute core of this training program: redesigning lessons using Backward Design.
Since early this morning, mathematics, science, and ICT teachers have been gathered in groups, fully immersed in redefining the learning objectives for their specific subject chapters.
What is Backward Design?
Unlike traditional lesson planning (which usually flows: choose activities ➔ teach ➔ assess), Backward Design — drawn from Wiggins and McTighe’s Understanding by Design (UbD) — is a curriculum design framework that supports competency-based learning, in which teachers plan in reverse:
[Stage 1: Identify desired results (achievement standards)]
➔ [Stage 2: Determine acceptable evidence (assessment plan)]
➔ [Stage 3: Plan learning experiences and instruction].
The power of this sequence is alignment: the achievement standards, the classroom instruction, and the assessment are all designed to point in the same direction.
Live Field Sketch: A Day of Intense Collaboration
1. 9:00 AM — “What are we really trying to teach?”
Teachers turned to their curriculum frameworks — along with the relevant textbook units — to begin filling out their Backward Design templates. In the past, the initial focus might have been on teacher-led actions, such as “How do I distribute the lab materials?” or “How many slides should I present?” Today, however, they started asking entirely different questions:
“Which achievement standards must students reach in this unit?”
“Can they apply and transfer these concepts to solve real-life problems instead of just memorizing formulas?”
Guided by a constructivist approach, both the math and science teams engaged in passionate discussions to translate the curriculum’s achievement standards into student-centered competency goals, rather than simple rote-memorization targets.
2. 1:30 PM — Aligning Curriculum, Instruction, and Assessment
With the achievement standards set, the next hurdle was Stage 2: determining what evidence would show those standards had been met — and keeping everything aligned. Backward Design lives or dies on alignment: the achievement standards from the national curriculum, the way the lesson is implemented in the classroom, and the assessment that measures learning all have to line up.
“What evidence will prove that the student has actually reached this standard?”
For teachers highly accustomed to traditional paper-and-pencil exams, designing formative assessments, performance tasks, and rubrics that map directly back to each standard was a formidable challenge. Whenever a group found their activities and assessments drifting away from the standard, the core trainers stepped in immediately, providing close, 1:1 coaching to bring curriculum, instruction, and assessment back into alignment.
3. 3:30 PM — The “Aha!” Moments
“I used to focus solely on preparing engaging experiment activities, but without a proper assessment plan, I couldn’t tell what the students actually took away from it. By setting the achievement standards and assessment criteria first today, it became instantly clear what the classroom activities need to be — and how they all connect!”
→ A shared realization among participating science teachers
With customized feedback from the core trainers, nods of realization and “Aha!” moments rippled across the room. Vague lesson ideas were systematically transformed into highly structured lesson plans in which curriculum, instruction, and assessment are fully aligned within the Backward Design template.
Looking Ahead to Tomorrow (Day 4): Peer Teaching Demos!
The Backward Design lesson plans created today won’t just stay as theoretical concepts on paper.
Tomorrow, on Day 4, teachers will take these exact designs into a peer teaching demonstration and reflection workshop. Groups will conduct 15-minute teaching demos for their peers, bringing their standards-aligned designs to life, and will receive immediate feedback for further improvement.
Moving far beyond being simple deliverers of knowledge, our Cambodian STEM teachers are truly transforming into learning designers who design their own highly effective classrooms.
Please continue to cheer them on as they tackle the brilliant challenges of the remaining two days!