What’s the Big Idea?

“Assuming for the moment that this course is the LAST course the students
will ever take in the area (as opposed to the first in a series of courses),
what core discipline-specific ideas/concepts do you want ALL students
taking the course to understand deeply, i.e., be able to apply and
even transfer to other settings five years later?”

–Bill Moore, SBCTC Big Ideas Project

Using the concept of “big ideas” to help focus on the core learning take-aways of a course can be a useful first exercise in course design. Course designers can use the collection of big ideas as a touch stone for writing a meaningful course description for the syllabus or when writing goals, learning outcomes, activities, and assessments that really matter.

The practice of using “big ideas,” along with “backward design” is credited to Grant Wiggins and Jay McTighe (Understanding by Design Professional Development Workbook, 2004). See additional background via this excerpt, What is a “big idea”?

Where to begin?

An idea is “big” if it helps us make sense of lots of confusing experiences and seemingly isolated facts. It’s like the picture that connects the dots or a simple rule of thumb in a complex field (Wiggins & McTIghe, 2004). Think about the essential questions that are considered in your course. Some ideas are foundational, like, “Psychology is a science,” or “Price is a function of supply and demand.” Some ideas pique interest, like, “Humans significantly alter the Earth,” “High quality journalism is the lifeblood of democracy,” or “What is human nature?” A big idea can make an assertion, offer a debate, ask a provocative question, or present a theme, theory, misconception, paradox, etc. They are like the tip of the iceburg, all representing much bigger, more complex areas of study.

Things to Avoid in Big Ideas

• ideas that are too vague
• the use of learning objectives as ideas
• ideas that are confusing or have too many variables
• ideas that represent universal truths
• ideas that are too simple

Things to Look for in Big Ideas

• concise, simple language that represents big concepts
• the idea acts as a hook for further learning
• experts in the field agree with these ideas OR argue them at length
• some ideas may bridge to other disciplines
• the idea may stay true for a very long time
• the idea is memorable
• the idea helps the concepts make sense

References and Resources

Understanding by Design Professional Development Workbook – Jay McTighe and Grant Wiggins distributed by ASCD (2004)

What is a “Big Idea”? – WWU Teaching Handbook; Excerpted from Grant Wiggins’ Big Ideas, An Authentic Education e-Journal (2010)