Defining Constructive Alignment

Students and instructors often experience frustration as they move through a course, and their concerns are two sides of the same coin. Instructors are distressed by “the lack of student awareness of their academic development,” and students are confused by “their position within the curriculum, [asking], ‘Why am I learning this now?’” (Wijngaards-de Meij and Merx, 219). Issues like these most frequently arise when there is a lack of alignment between learning outcomes and course activities, and one way to address them is through ensuring the constructive alignment of a curriculum.

John Biggs defines a constructively aligned learning environment as follows: “All components in the teaching system - the curriculum and its intended outcomes, the teaching methods used, the assessment tasks - are aligned to each other. All are tuned to learning activities addressed in the desired learning outcomes. The learner finds it difficult to escape without learning appropriately” (1). In other words, each part of students’ experience and instructors’ goals are carefully and intentionally planned, beginning with desired learning outcomes and matching these outcomes with appropriate classroom activities and learning assessments.

Biggs further explains the intuitiveness of a constructively aligned curriculum:

“It is easy to see why alignment should work. In aligned teaching, there is maximum consistency throughout the system. The curriculum is stated in the form of clear objectives, which state the level of understanding required rather than simply a list of topics to be covered. The teaching methods are chosen that are likely to realize those objectives: you get students to do the things that the objectives nominate. Finally, the assessment tasks address the objectives, so you can test to see if the students have learned what the objectives state that they should be learning. All components in the system address the same agenda and support each other. The students are 'entrapped' in this web of consistency, optimizing the likelihood that they will engage the appropriate learning activities” (27).

Biggs also provides some simple examples of this outcomes-based approach:

“A mother teaching her child how to tie a shoelace focuses on that outcome and takes the child through the motions of tying a lace until the act of tying can be carried out satisfactorily by the child. Likewise, a learner driver learns through the act of driving itself until the specified standard is reached. In each case, the target act is at once the intended outcome, the method of teaching, and the means of assessing whether the desired criterion or standard of the outcome has been met” (6).

As an expanded example in a high school history class setting, a learning experience that is not constructively aligned would look like this→

• Learning objective: Students should understand how to interpret historical documents from the Civil War era in context

• Classroom activity: The instructor lectures on the major arguments made in significant documents like the Emancipation Proclamation and the Gettysburg Address

• Assessment method: Students are given a quiz on the specific dates and historical actors of battles and political decisions during the Civil War

This example does not show constructive alignment since the learning objective, classroom activity, and assessment method are mismatched. While the learning objective and classroom activity both have to do with historical documents, a lecture on the main arguments in a document does not help students practice and develop their interpretation skills. The assessment method is also misaligned, since it asks students about dates and names rather than tests their ability to interpret historical documents.

In contrast, the instructor could revise their plans and use the learning objective to inform their chosen classroom activities and assessment methods. A better version of this learning experience would look like this→

• Learning objective: Students should understand how to interpret historical documents from the Civil War era in context

• Classroom activity: The instructor walks students through a document, interpreting it with them and asking them questions about the context, then allows students to interpret another document in pairs or small groups

• Assessment method: Students are given a quiz and are asked to write a paragraph to interpret an excerpt of a document