Three Interconnected Parts
Learning Experiences (how students arrive at learning outcomes), Assessments (proof that they met outcomes), and Intended Learning Outcomes (the difficult part, requires thinking).
Measurability and Challenges
Learning objectives must be quantifiable. Measurability is often intuitive for scientists and engineers, but it can still be difficult.
The speaker discusses whether people write learning outcomes without taking assessment into account. This does happen, but it is strongly discouraged.
It is frequently iterative, beginning with an excellent project or assignment concept and then backing up to specify the learning objectives it supports.
Course Design Models
Presents two comparable models:
- Grant Wiggins & Jay McTighe's (US K-12, applicable)
- John Biggs's (UK)
The steps are basically the same: identify desired results (learning outcomes), determine acceptable evidence (assessments), and plan learning experiences (instructional activities).
Activity: Using Bloom's Taxonomy to Classify Topics
Participants are requested to bring subjects from a course they might instruct.
They distribute their topics according to what students should be able to do with them using a chart that has columns for Bloom's taxonomy levels (remember, understand, apply, analyze, evaluate, and create).
This exercise assists participants in beginning to consider what they want students to do with the material.
The activity can be difficult, according to reflections. It's the first step in establishing what knowledge, skills, or abilities students should possess.
Transforming Subjects into Learning Objectives
As the class or course progresses, move from topics to real statements of what the students will be able to do.
- Compared to course-level outcomes, learning objectives for a single class session are more specific.
- Learning objectives need to be specific, measurable, and realistic.
What Learning Outcomes Are Not
- Not topics (e.g., "The first law of thermodynamics"). What do students do with it? This sentence needs a verb.
- Not actions taken by the instructor (e.g., "I will discuss the first law..."). This doesn't gauge how well students are learning.
- Not value statements (e.g., "This is good," "This is easy").
- Not dreams and hopes (they represent dreams, but they emphasize student action).
Learning Outcomes Examples: Good vs. Bad
The claim that "students will understand plate tectonics" is flawed since the word "understand" is neither precise nor quantifiable.
Better: "Students will be able to interpret unfamiliar tectonic settings based on information on seismicity and volcanic activity." This is quantifiable and specific; it can be evaluated by a test question.
- Teacher-centered outcomes, such as "I'm going to introduce students...", are useless.
- In general, student-centered outcomes (e.g., "They're going to list and describe...") are beneficial.
- Vague, unmeasurable, and unclear are the criticisms levelled at statements like "Understand the formal constructs of physical design."
- Better verbs include: identify, list, explain, describe, use, compare.
Bloom's Taxonomy Revisited
A pyramid representing a hierarchy of cognitive processes is displayed, with creation at the top and memory at the base.
Recalling facts alone is not enough for higher levels; more complex cognitive processing is needed.
Although there are more effective, quantifiable verbs to describe the second level, the word "understand" is regrettably used for it.
The idea that it's preferable to specify the action that demonstrates understanding is revisited.
The Ineffectiveness of Asking "Do You Understand?"
Even if they don't understand, students are likely to answer "yes" to avoid coming across as dimwitted.
The question itself is as vague as the word "understand".
Teachers must be aware of the precise behaviors that signify comprehension.
Active learning strategies, such as clickers and pair-share, provide real-time insight into students' conceptual understanding.
Activities give students the chance to ask if they understand.
Instructors can effectively assess students' understanding through activities in which they do or say something.
Including Activities in Lectures
Activities should be completed during lectures rather than in separate sessions. This model works well even with large classes (using clickers, pair share, etc.).
Students learn more when active learning is integrated into lectures, according to research (such as the meta-analysis on active learning).
Instructor's Role
The instructor sets expectations regarding:
- Where topics fit into Bloom's taxonomy
- What students should do with the topics
- Adjustments based on class and student level
The same subject can lead to different learning outcomes, as demonstrated by examples such as X-ray diffraction and interstitial sites (e.g., identify vs. calculate vs. analyze/index unknown patterns).
Align instructional activities with the expected level; if students are only practicing the application of a law, do not assess them on indexing patterns in the exam.
Writing Measurable Learning Outcomes Exercise
For instance, by providing a crystal structure and requesting the calculation, the question "Calculate the maximum size of interstitial atoms..." is readily measurable.
Examples of bad learning outcomes include:
- "An appreciation for..."
- "Have an intuition for..."
- "Provide problem-solving tools..."
- "Use thermodynamics..."
- "Build a SAPE race car..."
- "Learn to use... transforms..."
- "Know how to... diagonalise..."
Common problems include:
- Being instructor-centered
- Ambiguous language
- Unrealistic expectations
- Lack of specificity
- Not measurable
Rewriting emphasizes the use of measurable verbs and the specification of the action or context (e.g., "use techniques," "calculate something," "describe when/why you would use it," "compare methods," "solve a problem," "identify an effective method," "use transforms to solve this type of differential equation," "upper diagonalise a matrix"). It's crucial to eliminate superfluous phrases like "learn how to" and "know how to."
Advantages of Unambiguous Learning Outcomes
Students can:
- Assess a class's relevance for their future objectives (such as careers).
- Understand clear expectations without "giving away" exam questions.
- Meet listing outcomes necessary for engineering programs to receive ABET accreditation.
Activity: Writing and Reviewing Learning Outcomes with Peers
Using their sorted topics and the supplied verb lists, participants independently write specific intended learning outcomes according to the topics' placement in the Bloom's taxonomy chart.
They then form small groups or pair up to trade and critically review each other's learning outcomes.
Criticism criteria include:
- Are they specific, measurable, and realistic?
- Assist partners in substituting ambiguous terms like "understand."
Following that, learning objectives are written on flip chart paper and displayed for public viewing.
Comments and Observations Regarding Written Learning Outcomes
About 90%, according to the instructor, are highly specific, which is great for measurability.
Striking a balance between being specific enough to measure and not so specific that only one question can be asked.
Peer review aids in identifying problems with clarity, particularly for non-experts. For example, "code and compile Java source code" may be obvious to an expert but unclear to a novice. It is beneficial to get input from people outside of one's field in order to make results understandable to students.
Critique of "explain how... works": Students may merely provide pre-prepared or memorized responses. To genuinely test comprehension at the "explain" level, assessments must be created that demand applying knowledge to new circumstances.
Avoiding Buzzwords
The use of catchphrases such as "real-world problems" in learning objectives is discussed.
Although they are motivating, they can be ambiguous and fail to specify the precise resources or abilities that students will learn.
Being more explicit about the kinds of issues or why they are important is preferable. Since some terms may not be understood by students until later in the course, a balance is required.
The Function of the Syllabus
The course design, including the learning objectives, is articulated in the syllabus. It serves as a description and a promise to students regarding their future capabilities.
Benefits of the Syllabus
- Engages students and motivates them.
- Helps the teacher stay on course for the duration of the semester.
- Assists students in understanding their expectations as well as those of the teacher.
- Provides structural, motivational, and evidence of what was hoped to be accomplished.
Assignment After the Session
Utilizing the activity results as a foundation, create more learning outcomes for their course. The chart ought to be useful.
Peer Interaction
- Read each other's wiki posts and comment on them.
- It's crucial to read peer postings to gain knowledge from the experiences and perspectives of others.
- For further comments or inquiries, mud cards are available.
