David Steer

Department of Geosciences

The University of Akron

Writing Learning Outcomes

October 2013

Identify Course & Module Learning

Goals

Identify learning objectives for

individual lessons

Determine how to assess and measure student success on goals and objectives

Design teaching resources and

materials to match assessments

Plan Instructional Strategies to

implement teaching resources

Pilot Materials, Make changes

• Essential and enduring knowledge

• Abilities• Skills• Attitudes

Learning Outcomes (Goals)

Let other faculty and students know what the module or course is all about

Provide a “big picture” view of the module or course

Good Learning Outcomes (Goals)

Your overall learning outcomes must …• Encompass the five overarching goals • Be scaled appropriately• Be measurable

• Clarify what you want students to accomplish• Effectively communicate expectations to

students• Help you select methods, materials and

assignments that are appropriate• Help guide development of assessments that

show what students have learned

How to Design Learning Outcomes

Use a Reverse Planning Strategy

What do we want students learn

from this curriculum?

StartLearning outcome

statements

End

What content supports that

learning?

How do we measure what

they learn?

• Determine several things you want students to know and be able to do at completion of the course/module

• Select an appropriate upper-level Bloom's taxonomy action verb for each

• Specify performance criteria• Write the goal

Developing Good Outcomes

Bloom’s Taxonomy modified by Anderson and Krathwohl, 2001http://www.unco.edu/cetl/sir/stating_outcome/documents/Krathwohl.pdf

Also see handout

• Analyzing - Analyze, Distinguish, Examine, Compare, Contrast, Investigate, Identify, Explain, Deduce.

• Evaluating - Judge, Select, Choose, Decide, Justify, Debate, Verify, Argue, Recommend, Assess, Discuss, Rate, Prioritize, Determine, Critique, Evaluate, Criticize, Weigh, Estimate, Defend.

• Creating - Create, Invent, Compose, Predict, Plan, Construct, Design, Propose, Devise, Formulate, Combine, Hypothesize, Synthesize, Forecast.

Good Module/Course Goal Verbs

Note: It is best to avoid LOs that include verbs such as know, be aware, appreciate, learn, understand, comprehend or become familiar with because they are difficult to observe and measure.

See http://www.personal.psu.edu/bxb11/Objectives/ActionVerbsforObjectives.pdf

Explain how managing mineral resources depends also on non-geological factors such as population, consumption, economics, existing and new technologies, recycling, reuse, and adoption of alternative materials.

Assess coastal vulnerability using an integrated social and physical approach

Predict agricultural challenges that might result from climate change using systems thinking

Design a standards-based interdisciplinary lesson for the secondary classroom that embeds geoscientific thinking and content as part of biology, chemistry, Earth science and physics instruction

Some Good ExamplesC

ogni

tive

Leve

lLo

wH

igh

• Course/module addresses one or more geoscience-related grand challenges facing society

• Course/module develops student ability to address interdisciplinary problems

• Course/module improves student understanding of the nature and methods of geoscience and developing geoscientific habits of mind

• Course/module makes use of authentic and credible geoscience data to learn central concepts in the context of geoscience methods of inquiry

• Course/module incorporates systems thinking

Learning Outcomes

What is required from the Materials Development Rubric?

Must score 15/15 on this section

• Outcomes specify learning that will occur• That learning must be documented• Graded assessments are the way we document that

learning (can have multiple parts)• You will be submitting that student work to us as

part of the pilot• Comprehensive• Reasonable

Assessment of Learning OutcomesThink about the assessments you will use

to measure your outcomes before you finalize them

Climate Change Related AssessmentThe maps below illustrate the city of Providence, RI. Figure 1

shows the percentage of tree cover in different parts of the city. Figure 2 is a surface temperature map. (Data from Providence Urban Forest Report, 2008.)

(1)Describe the general relationship illustrated by these maps.

(2) Based on these data, provide a recommendation to the Providence City Council about climate change adaptation in their city.

Teacher Prep AssessmentPreparing an Interdisciplinary Lesson Plan that Uses the

Methods of Geoscience

To cement their understanding of the methods of geoscience, pre-service teachers are given the assignment of constructing an interdisciplinary lesson plan. They will select one of the instructional resources that they evaluated in Activity 3 Part 1 and prepare an interdisciplinary lesson plan (including any student materials) that addresses at least one of the big ideas or supporting concepts from either the state's curriculum for Earth Science or from the Earth Science Literacy Principles (ESLI 2010) or the Next Generation Science Standards and at least one big idea or supporting concept from either biology, chemistry or physics. Lesson plans will be evaluated with the Rubric for Activity 3 Part 2: Lesson Plan and Student Handout

Learning Outcomes (Goals)

What questions do you have about developing and

writing course/module

learning outcomes and their

assessments?