Teaching for Quality Learning at University

Citation

Biggs, J., Tang, C., & Kennedy, G. (2022). Teaching for Quality Learning at University (5th ed.). Open University Press (McGraw Hill).

Chapter Summary

The fifth edition has fourteen chapters in three parts and about 384 pages. The first edition appeared in 1999, and this edition follows the 2011 edition by Biggs and Tang, with Gregor Kennedy as a new co-author. The publisher describes constructive alignment as a "backward design" method of teaching: the intended student outcomes are identified first, the teacher then designs teaching activities to enable students to achieve them, and assessment shows how well they have been achieved. Each chapter outlines how to design the learning outcomes, teaching and assessment for success in learning. This edition is described as offering a research-based theory of teaching for reflection, an account of how educational technology can be used in constructively aligned teaching, support for staff developers, and a framework for quality assurance and enhancement across an institution.

Part 1, Chapters 1–3: The Evolving Context of University Teaching; Teaching According to How Students Learn; Setting the Stage for Effective Teaching

The first part, titled Effective Teaching and Learning in Today's Universities, begins with the changing context of university teaching. Chapter 2 grounds teaching in how students learn, and Chapter 3 sets the stage for effective teaching.

Part 1, Chapters 4–6: Contexts for Effective Teaching and Learning; Knowledge and Understanding; Constructively Aligned Teaching and Assessment

Chapter 4 considers the contexts in which teaching and learning take place. Chapter 5 turns to knowledge and understanding. Chapter 6 closes the part by introducing constructively aligned teaching and assessment, the framework that the later parts apply.

Part 2, Chapters 7–9: Designing Intended Learning Outcomes; Teaching/Learning Activities for Declarative Intended Learning Outcomes; Teaching/Learning Activities for Functioning Intended Learning Outcomes

The second part, Designing Constructively Aligned Teaching and Learning, follows the sequence of backward design. Chapter 7 deals with writing intended learning outcomes. Chapters 8 and 9 then choose teaching and learning activities for two kinds of outcome, declarative and functioning.

Part 2, Chapters 10–12: Aligning Assessment Tasks with Intended Learning Outcomes: Principles; Assessing and Grading for Declarative Intended Learning Outcomes; Assessing and Grading for Functioning Intended Learning Outcomes

Chapter 10 sets out the principles of aligning assessment tasks with intended learning outcomes. Chapters 11 and 12 take assessment and grading for the two kinds of outcome in turn, mirroring the pairing of Chapters 8 and 9.

Part 3, Chapters 13–14: Implementing, Supporting and Enhancing Constructive Alignment; Constructive Alignment as Implemented: Some Examples

The third part, Constructive Alignment in Action, covers putting the approach into practice, supporting it and enhancing it, and closes with examples of constructive alignment as implemented.

Key Concepts

Part 1: Effective teaching and learning

• Constructive alignment: designing intended learning outcomes, teaching activities and assessment tasks so that they support one another.
• Backward design: identifying student outcomes first, then designing activities and assessment to achieve and check them.

Part 2: Designing aligned teaching

• Intended learning outcomes: statements of what students should be able to do, from which teaching and assessment are designed.
• Declarative and functioning outcomes: the two kinds of intended learning outcome, each given its own chapters on teaching/learning activities and on assessment and grading.
• Assessment and grading: tasks aligned with outcomes and used to judge the quality of achievement.

Part 3: Putting it into practice

• Implementation and support: putting constructive alignment into practice and sustaining it, the subject of Chapter 13.
• Quality assurance and enhancement: a framework applied across a whole institution.

Critical Analysis

Strengths

• One organizing principle throughout. The sixth chapter introduces constructive alignment, and the chapters of Part 2 apply it step by step to outcomes, activities, assessment tasks and grading, so the book is both a theory and a design sequence.
• Parallel structure for two kinds of outcome. Chapters 8–9 and 11–12 treat declarative and functioning outcomes in matched pairs, which makes it easy to compare how teaching and assessment differ between them.
• Long standing. The book dates from 1999, and the publisher notes its use as a framework for designing higher education teaching systems globally.
• Attention to institutions as well as classrooms. Part 3 covers implementing and supporting constructive alignment, and the publisher's description mentions support for staff developers and a framework for quality assurance, so it is useful beyond the individual teacher.

Limitations

• A single framework. The book is built around constructive alignment; readers wanting a survey of competing models of university teaching will need other texts.
• Length and density. At about 384 pages and fourteen chapters, it is a substantial read, and its terminology (such as declarative and functioning outcomes) takes time to learn.
• Design-heavy. Much of the book is devoted to designing outcomes, activities and assessment, so readers looking for short classroom techniques may find it indirect.

Where It Fits in the Course

In the higher education course, this is the course-design book. Lang's Small Teaching translates research on learning into brief activities and small course-design changes that instructors can use without rebuilding a course, so it suits an instructor who wants quick wins; Biggs, Tang and Kennedy suits one who is designing or redesigning a whole course or programme. How Learning Works is a research-grounded guide to why students learn well or struggle, organized into eight principles, and a natural companion for the learning side of Chapter 2. Bain's What the Best College Teachers Do is a study of what exceptional teachers have in common, based on observation and interviews.

The Handbook for Teaching and Learning in Higher Education is an edited handbook covering the policy context, core practices of teaching, assessment and student support, and Bastedo, Altbach and Gumport's American Higher Education in the Twenty-First Century is an edited volume on higher education as an institution in society rather than as a teaching setting. Biggs, Tang and Kennedy sit between these: more systematic than Lang or Bain, more focused on teaching design than the handbook or the institutional volume.

How to Use This Book

The book suits new and experienced university teachers, programme leaders and staff developers. Familiarity with basic principles of learning and teaching in higher education, for example from an introductory guide for new lecturers, is sufficient preparation.

A practical plan:

• Core: Chapter 6 for the central idea, then Chapters 7 to 12 in order, since each step builds on the previous one.
• Foundations: Chapters 1 to 5 on context, how students learn, and knowledge and understanding, to be read first by those new to the field or later by those who want the reasoning behind the design steps.
• Institutional work: Chapters 13 and 14 for implementing and supporting constructive alignment and for the worked examples.

While reading, rewrite the outcomes, activities and assessment tasks of one course you teach, and check at each step whether they support each other.