Comprehensive Design
for Learning and Teaching
Schoolwide IB Networking Session Three
This collection showcases learning engagements designed by Richard Hood to make thinking visible and learning accessible without sacrificing rigor. The resources model how intentional design choices support agency, inclusion, conceptual understanding and intellectual rigor.
These resources are designed to illustrate how optimal learning arrangements emerge when course design begins with clarity about the skills, dispositions, and ways of thinking learners are meant to develop over time. Rather than teaching to an assessment, the learning engagements model how backward design, guided analysis, and intentional progression help students understand and monitor their own growth—individually and collaboratively—as learning unfolds.
Grounded in constructivist pedagogies and informed by the IB learning context, these engagements demonstrate how rigor, agency, and student wellbeing can coexist. By experiencing these tools as learners, educators are invited to reflect on how thoughtful design choices—around choice, collaboration, and reflection—create classrooms where challenging academic work is playful, experiential, deeply engaging, and accessible to all.
Learning engagements that empower guided analysis of literary and non-literary texts
Two frameworks for guided analysis
Learning Engagement 1: The Thing
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Use the Four Text Decoder Questions to explore this non-literary text.
Discuss with a group.
Learning Engagement 2: The Dinner Party
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What are all the ways this engagement activates students in their critical, creative, and transferable thinking skills?
Learning Engagement 3: Curate a Gallery
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How might you adapt or integrate this engagement into some of the learning design you already facilitate in your classroom?
Further reading & resources
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Related Education By Design Podcast episodes
S1.E1: Richard Hood on “Igniting Joy in Learning”
"Igniting Joy in Learning” dives deep into the strategies education leaders crave: practical ways to spark teacher inspiration, student engagement, and inquiry‑based learning that lasts. In this episode, veteran IB educator and professional‑development facilitator Richard Hood reveals how shifting from content delivery to joy‑centered, student‑agency‑driven classrooms transforms outcomes—especially in today’s media‑saturated world. Listeners will discover actionable tips for nurturing curiosity, creativity, and critical thinking, building supportive teacher communities, and weaving social‑justice and media‑literacy skills into everyday lessons. Whether you’re a principal, instructional coach, or classroom innovator, this conversation offers high‑impact insights on professional learning, rigorous yet joyful pedagogy, and sustainable teacher motivation. Tune in to “Igniting Joy in Learning” and equip yourself with research‑backed approaches that empower teachers to inspire students—and fuel a culture of lifelong learning.
Listen wherever you get your podcasts
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Watch the recorded session on IB Exchange.