What is Constructive Alignment?

Constructive alignment means bringing into alignment the predetermined competencies, the learning and teaching activities, and the assessment types. It is one of the most influential principles in higher education.

When designing a programme or course unit, you should consider the following three questions:

1.What should students know or master after the programme or the course unit? In other words, which objectives (learning outcomes or course competencies) do you aim to reach with these students?
2.Which teaching and learning activities are required to teach the students these competencies?
3.How to assess whether or not students truly master the intended competencies?
A high-quality learning process properly aligns these three elements (objectives, teaching and learning activities, and assessment methods); they are then “constructively aligned”. Assessment strongly influences how students learn, which is why it is important that it is properly aligned with education and teaching activities. Only then can you achieve an effective learning process. This is not the case when the assessment measures other competencies than the ones that were developed during teaching activities.