Competency 1: Instructional Design and Planning

Weight: 18% of the exam (~14 questions)

This is one of the two heaviest competencies on the FTCE Professional Education exam. You need to understand how effective teachers plan instruction — from selecting assessments to applying learning theories to differentiating for all students. This competency tests whether you can design instruction that is standards-aligned, data-driven, culturally responsive, and developmentally appropriate.

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Assessment Methods for Instructional Planning

Effective planning starts with understanding where students are. You need to know the major assessment types and when each is used:

Types of Assessment

• Diagnostic Assessment — Administered before instruction to identify students' existing knowledge, skills, and misconceptions. Examples: pretests, KWL charts, interest inventories, and skills checklists. The purpose is to determine starting points so instruction can be targeted.
• Formative Assessment — Ongoing, during instruction. Used to monitor learning in real time and adjust teaching immediately. Examples: exit tickets, thumbs up/down, whiteboard responses, observations, questioning, think-pair-share, and learning logs. Formative assessment is not graded — it is information for the teacher.
• Summative Assessment — Administered after instruction to evaluate what students learned. Examples: unit tests, final projects, portfolios, end-of-course exams, and standardized state tests. Summative assessment is typically graded.
• Benchmark (Interim) Assessment — Administered periodically (quarterly, mid-year) to track progress toward standards and predict performance on summative assessments.

Exam tip: If a question asks about adjusting instruction in real time, the answer involves formative assessment. If it asks about measuring mastery at the end of a unit, it is summative.

Formal vs. Informal Assessment

• Formal — Standardized, structured, typically scored with rubrics or answer keys (state tests, published assessments, unit exams).
• Informal — Unstructured, based on teacher observation and professional judgment (anecdotal notes, student conferences, observation checklists, questioning during lessons).

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Fostering Higher-Order Thinking

You must be able to select practices that promote critical, creative, and reflective thinking aligned with standards at the appropriate level of rigor.

Bloom's Taxonomy (Revised)

Bloom's Taxonomy is a hierarchy of cognitive processes. The exam frequently tests your ability to identify the cognitive level of a task:

1. Remember — Recall facts and basic concepts (define, list, memorize)
2. Understand — Explain ideas or concepts (describe, summarize, paraphrase)
3. Apply — Use information in new situations (solve, demonstrate, implement)
4. Analyze — Draw connections among ideas (compare, contrast, categorize, examine)
5. Evaluate — Justify a decision or position (judge, critique, defend, assess)
6. Create — Produce new or original work (design, construct, develop, compose)

The top three levels (Analyze, Evaluate, Create) are considered higher-order thinking. When the exam asks about rigor, it is asking whether the task goes beyond recall and comprehension.

Webb's Depth of Knowledge (DOK)

• DOK 1 — Recall: Basic facts, definitions, simple procedures
• DOK 2 — Skill/Concept: Requires some mental processing beyond recall (classify, organize, estimate)
• DOK 3 — Strategic Thinking: Requires reasoning, planning, and explaining (draw conclusions, justify, cite evidence)
• DOK 4 — Extended Thinking: Requires complex reasoning over time (research projects, design experiments, synthesize across sources)

Exam tip: If a question asks you to increase rigor, look for the answer that moves the task to a higher Bloom's level or higher DOK level — not the answer that simply makes the task harder by adding more problems.

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Learning Theories

This is a heavily tested area. You need to know the major learning theorists and how their theories translate into classroom practice.

Behaviorism

Key theorists: B.F. Skinner, Ivan Pavlov, John Watson, Edward Thorndike

Core idea: Learning is a change in observable behavior caused by external stimuli. The learner responds to environmental conditions.

• Classical conditioning (Pavlov): A neutral stimulus becomes associated with a response through repeated pairing. Example: students feel anxious when they hear "pop quiz" because the phrase has been paired with stress.
• Operant conditioning (Skinner): Behavior is shaped by consequences. Positive reinforcement adds something desirable to increase behavior. Negative reinforcement removes something unpleasant to increase behavior. Punishment adds something unpleasant or removes something desirable to decrease behavior.

Classroom applications: Token economies, behavior charts, praise systems, direct instruction, drill-and-practice, immediate feedback.

Cognitivism

Key theorists: Jean Piaget, Jerome Bruner, David Ausubel, information processing model

Core idea: Learning is an internal mental process involving encoding, storage, and retrieval of information.

• Piaget's Stages of Cognitive Development:
  • Sensorimotor (birth–2 years): Learning through senses and motor actions
  • Preoperational (2–7 years): Symbolic thinking but egocentric; cannot conserve
  • Concrete Operational (7–11 years): Logical thinking about concrete events; can classify and seriate
  • Formal Operational (11+ years): Abstract and hypothetical reasoning
• Schema theory: New information is either assimilated (fitted into existing mental frameworks) or existing schemas must accommodate (change to fit new information).
• Advance organizers (Ausubel): Providing a framework or overview before instruction helps learners connect new material to existing knowledge.

Classroom applications: Graphic organizers, connecting to prior knowledge, chunking information, mnemonic devices, scaffolding.

Constructivism

Key theorists: Lev Vygotsky, John Dewey, Jerome Bruner

Core idea: Learners actively construct their own understanding through experience and social interaction. Knowledge is not passively received.

• Vygotsky's Zone of Proximal Development (ZPD): The range between what a learner can do independently and what they can do with guidance. Instruction should target this zone.
• Scaffolding: Temporary, structured support that is gradually removed as the learner gains competence (think: training wheels).
• Social constructivism: Learning occurs through dialogue, collaboration, and negotiation of meaning with peers and more knowledgeable others.

Classroom applications: Inquiry-based learning, cooperative learning, project-based learning, discovery learning, hands-on exploration, class discussions.

Humanism

Key theorists: Abraham Maslow, Carl Rogers

• Maslow's Hierarchy of Needs: Physiological → Safety → Belonging → Esteem → Self-Actualization. Students cannot focus on learning if their basic needs (food, safety, belonging) are unmet.
• Rogers: Student-centered learning — the teacher acts as a facilitator, not a lecturer. The emotional climate of the classroom matters as much as the content.

Exam tip: If a question describes a student who is hungry, scared, or isolated, the correct answer addresses the basic need before academic instruction — this is Maslow.

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Backward Design (Understanding by Design)

Developed by Grant Wiggins and Jay McTighe, backward design is a planning framework you are likely to see on the exam:

1. Stage 1 — Identify desired results: What should students know and be able to do? Start with the standards.
2. Stage 2 — Determine acceptable evidence: How will you know students have learned it? Design the assessments before planning activities.
3. Stage 3 — Plan learning experiences: What activities and instruction will lead students to the desired results?

Key point: You plan the assessment before you plan the activities. This ensures alignment between what you teach, how you assess, and what the standard requires.

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Writing Measurable Objectives

Objectives should be specific and measurable. Use the ABCD framework:

• Audience — Who is learning? (e.g., "The student will...")
• Behavior — What observable action? Use measurable verbs from Bloom's (identify, compare, construct — not "understand" or "appreciate")
• Condition — Under what circumstances? (e.g., "given a map...")
• Degree — To what standard? (e.g., "with 80% accuracy")

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Culturally Responsive Planning

You must select instructional materials and practices that account for regional, socio-economic, and home language backgrounds.

• Culturally responsive teaching (Geneva Gay): Uses students' cultural references as assets for instruction — not deficits to overcome.
• Funds of knowledge (Moll et al.): Recognizes that students' home and community experiences are valuable sources of knowledge that instruction should draw upon.
• Evaluate materials for bias, representation, accuracy, and cultural relevance.
• Home language is an asset — build on it rather than suppress it (bilingual word walls, cognate instruction, allowing processing in the first language).

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Sequencing and Prior Knowledge Activation

Effective instruction is sequenced logically: simple to complex, concrete to abstract, known to unknown. Each lesson should build on the previous one with explicit connections.

• Prior knowledge activation strategies: KWL charts, anticipation guides, brainstorming, concept maps, vocabulary previews, pretests
• Spiral curriculum (Bruner): Revisiting key concepts at increasing levels of complexity throughout the year

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Developmental Patterns and Differentiation

Know the patterns of physical, social, and academic development and how they inform instructional decisions:

• Erikson's psychosocial stages: Industry vs. Inferiority (elementary) — students need to feel competent; failure at this stage produces feelings of inferiority.
• Piaget's cognitive stages determine whether students can handle abstract tasks.
• Tomlinson's differentiation model: Differentiate by content (what), process (how), product (demonstrate), and environment (where). Use data to drive all differentiation decisions.

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RTI / MTSS: Tiered Intervention

Response to Intervention (RTI) and Multi-Tiered System of Supports (MTSS) use data to provide increasingly intensive instruction:

• Tier 1 (Universal): High-quality core instruction for ALL students (~80% meet expectations)
• Tier 2 (Targeted): Small-group supplemental instruction for students not meeting benchmarks (~15%). Evidence-based, progress-monitored every 1–2 weeks.
• Tier 3 (Intensive): Individualized, intensive intervention for students with significant gaps (~5%). Frequent progress monitoring; possible referral for special education evaluation.

Exam tip: If a question asks what a teacher should do first when a student is struggling, the answer is usually to collect data and try a Tier 2 intervention — not to immediately refer for special education.