Curriculum Using Understanding by Design Framework

The curriculum is an important component of education that has a variety of definitions and interpretations. According to Saylor and Alexander (1974) a curriculum is a set of learning experiences that are planned and designed to a particular educational goal. Ralph W. Tyler (1949) defined the curriculum as a plan to organize the learning experience of the student-organized to specific educational goals, such as developing a particular skill, knowledge, or attitude. Several experts have tried to give their own ideas concerning how the most appropriate framework to compile a curriculum. Wiggins and McTighe were also involved in enriching the development of the curriculum framework known as Understanding by Design. The backward design model focuses on learning objectives as learning outcomes before planning learning activities. Instead of focusing on the learning activities to be carried out, educators should first plan a learning outcome for the students. In this article, we will describe some things related to the curriculum using the framework of Understanding by Design. To focus on the direction and purpose of the discussion, it will be limited to four formula problems, (a) how UbD is implemented in learning, (b) analysis of the implementation of UbD in Indonesia, (c) how the learner's learning outcomes are expected in a framework, (d) how educator's role in implementing UbD.