RP2 Teaching Constructs:Learning Aims, Objectives and

Outcomes

In this presentation...

Definitions: Aims, Objectives and Outcomes

Creating effective objectives and outcomes.

Learning objectives and outcomes in the classroom environment.

Definitions: Aims, Objectives and

Outcomes

“What are we doing today?”

• All lessons need learning objectives.

• Make it clear what you expect pupils to know and understand by the end of the lesson.

• It is expected that pupils know what the learning objectives are, and can refer back to these objectives during and after the lesson.

• A significant feature of assessment for learning is the sharing with pupils of both the learning objectives and the expected learning outcomes in a clear and explicit way.

• The teacher makes it clear that the learning objective is what the pupils areintended to learn, and that the learning outcomes define how achievement can be demonstrated by the pupils.

• Learning objectives are important for two reasons:• They ensure that teachers are clear about the purpose of the lesson• They provide a signpost against which progress can be checked.

“Every lesson I have observed in the past 5 years has objectives (or aims, or intentions, or outcomes, or whatever) dutifully written up on the board and copied into students’ books. Does this mean that the learning objective has become mere white noise; a meaningless routine enacted in thousands of classrooms with very little impact on learning? Well, sadly, yes; this is probably all too often the case. The use of learning objectives has, all too often, become a reflexive box ticking exercise with little or no thought behind it.”

David Didau, The Learning Spy

Definitions

Aims Objectives Outcomes

• Serve as broad purposes or goals.

• Generally a statement of the intentions of the teacher or school when designing or running the course.

• They are not intended to be statements of what students will learn or do, but rather over-arching intentions of the course.

• Objectives spring directly from aims.

• Statements of the specific things which teachers and/or learners intend to achieve during the lesson.

• The skills and knowledgewhich it is intended that students should be able todemonstrate.

• The intention of learning outcomes is to give students more idea of what is expected of them.

Learning Objectives

Learning Outcomes

Some research...

Harden suggests that learning outcomes (which underpin the ‘outcome based education’ model) are essentially more ‘intuitive and user-friendly’ than objectives, that they are ‘broad statements… that recognise the authentic interaction and integration...of knowledge, skills and attitudes and the artificiality of separating these’ (2002, p. 151). We can think of outcomes as ‘learner goals’.

Grant notes that ‘what is important is fitness for purpose, and the main purposes of stating the intended learning achievements of the curriculum are to:• inform learners of what they should achieve• inform teachers about what they should help learners to achieve• form the basis of the assessment system, so that everyone knows what will be assessed(2007, p. 21).

Constructive Alignment

Biggs (1996) – ‘constructive alignment’ occurs where objectives, teaching methods and assessments are aimed at delivering the same thing.

Learning materials, support and resources have to be constructed to help the learner achieve the specified outcomes of the learning episode.

As we have seen, it is also vital that there is alignment between the learning outcomes or objectives at each level, so that learning ‘makes sense’ in terms of the individual learner’s journey.

Learning outcomes or objectives can be seen as the building blocks of any learning programme or teaching/learning event, and also as one of the keys that help all aspects of a programme link together.

Learning Objectives as AfL

Learning Objectives as part of formative assessment

Creating effective objectives and

outcomes?

Bloom’s Taxonomy

Bloom’s model can be used to help write learning objectives or outcomes where they are mapped on to the appropriate level, depending on what learners are expected to achieve.

A common mistake in writing outcomes is that they are at the wrong level; either expecting learners to be able to do something for which they are not yet ready, or inappropriately linking them to particular teaching and learning methods or assessments.

Bloom’s Taxonomy of Objectives in the Cognitive Domain (1956), which describes how learning objectives related to cognitive development increase in complexity as learners develop deeper understanding, start to apply this knowledge, and ultimately synthesise and evaluate what they have learned.

Bloom’s ‘domains’

Cognitiv

e

•Knowledge

•Intellectual skills

Psychomot

or

•Physical skills

•Imitation, manipulation, precision, articulation, naturalisation

Affective

•Feelings and attitudes

•Receiving, responding, valuing, organising, characterising

Differentiating Learning Outcomes

• Not all pupils will be able to access the knowledge/skills/understanding you are trying to impart in your lessons to the same level and at the same rate.

• Lesson objectives and outcomes need to be differentiated.

Possibilities Hazards• Even if pupils can only tackle some of the work, they will at least have covered the ‘must learn’ content

• More able pupils who work at a faster pace have a constant supply of useful – if not essential – material to work on

• Informing students that only ‘some’ of them will get around to the hard bit is a recipe for low expectations and thus to be avoided.

Differentiating Learning Outcomes

Must

Should

CouldAll Most Som

e

James Michie on ‘All-Most-Some’

• The box provided (on my school’s lesson planning sheet) for entering learning objectives is broken down into the following sections: ‘All, Most, Some’. I know this has been set out this way as it is something that Ofsted like to see. However, I am not convinced by it, having never seen the research behind it. I have seen lesson plans dutifully filled in, explaining how different sets of students will learn different skills.

All students will be able to describe…Most students will be able to analyse…Some students will be able to evaluate…

• Last time I checked, every single one of my students was capable of learning to do all of those skills, if taught the right way. Last time I checked some students found evaluating easier than analysing. Whichever taxonomy you prescribe to (Bloom’s / SOLO), the skills listed do not exist within a hierarchy or on a continuum. They are not linear. Learning is messy. Based on my experiences over the last nine years, learners will acquire different skills at varying rates in varying orders of preference, based on a diverse range of factors.

• None of this is to say that I don’t believe in differentiation. I do. In my mind, differentiation is not about learning objectives or outcomes, it is about teaching and learning. Differentiation takes place during the lesson. It is present in the way I formulate groups for discussion and projects. It is present in who I choose to spend my time with during a lesson and what I do with them. It is in how I deploy my learning assistant. It is about focussed differentiation; targeted support; the development of independent learning skills.

What makes a good learning outcome?

Written in the future tense

Clearly indicates the nature and/or level of learning requiredAchievable and accessible

Uses language that learners can easily understand

Relates to explicit statements of achievement

Contains verbs

Incorporates process as well as product

Avoids ambiguity or over-complexity

Some pitfalls …and how to avoid themTrying to achieve too much in one session Plan the session carefully, and allow time for discussion, activities and reflection

Trying to cover too many learning outcomes

Stick to a small number of learning outcomes (fewer than five) and be as specific as you can in terms of exactly what you are expecting the learners to be able to do at the end of the session

Learning outcomes not linked to the programme or to learner needs (level, etc.)

Make sure you know and understand the programme outcomes, the assessments the learners are working towards and the expectations of you, particularly the outcomes and assessments that relate specifically to your session(s)Include informal and formal activities that help you understand and identify the needs of the learners

Learning outcomes defined at the wrong level (re Bloom)

Think carefully about exactly what you are expecting the learners to be able to do, think about their ‘learning journey’: their prior learning and the stage they have reached

Learning outcomes in the wrong domain (re Bloom: cognitive, psychomotor, affective)

Map the learning outcomes on to the domains, split objectives that cover more than one domain and design the teaching to enable learners to achieve all the outcomes. If you are assuming that learners have the underpinning knowledge or earlier practice to carry out a complex skill, check it out, or break the skill down into sub-objectives

Learning outcomes not specific enough, don’t define exactly what you want them to be able to do

Practise writing them and think about how you might assess the objective

Learning outcomes not linked to teaching and learning methods

Select the teaching and learning methods that help learners achieve the outcome (level, domain), e.g. if skills, need demonstration, practice (simulation – real), possibly broken down into steps, build in feedback, not just reading about it or watching a video

Learning outcomes not linked to assessment

Always link the learning outcomes to an assessment (formative or summative), i.e. how will you and the learner know that they have achieved the outcome satisfactorily? Make sure the assessment assesses the right domain.

Learning outcomes not practical or feasible

Often there are too many learning outcomes specified to be covered in the time available or with the number or stage of learners. Check out equipment, rooms, other resources and facilities.

Learning outcomes not linked to evaluation, little capacity to review and change

Think about making the links between learning outcomes, teaching and learning methods, assessment and evaluation transparent so that you can refresh the curriculum. Don’t assume that the learning outcomes are set in stone. Update them.

Learning vs. Doing

A common pitfall in the sharing of learning objectives is to identify what pupils are going to do in the lesson, rather than what they are going to learn.

Learning

1 to know how to evaluate a product against a design specification; 

Doing 2 to create a Christmas decoration for a front door;

Pre-determined Reactivevs.

Oriented around the requirements of the course, scheme

of work or assessment criteria

Based on errors or areas requiring improvement

identified during an ongoing marking

process

To be able to explore the tone of

a poem using literary techniques

To be able to use simple and complex

sentences appropriately

Clarke: From Product to Process

Clarke explores the value of learning objectives in significant detail. She discusses the ‘taught specifics’ inherent within learning objectives arguing that teachers need to “move away from “PRODUCT” oriented success criteria to “PROCESS” oriented success criteria” (2005, 30-31).

Key Considerations

What do they know already?

Where have they come from, and

what next?

What do the learners want from

your teaching?

How can I incorporate

flexibility to cope with emergent

needs

Be precise!Vague outcome More precise outcome

By the end of this course, students will have added to their understanding of the complete research process.

By the end of this course, students will be able to:• describe the research process in social interventions • evaluate critically the quality of research by others • formulate research questions designed to test, refine, and build

theories• identify and demonstrate facility in research designs and data

collection strategies that are most appropriate to a particular research project

• formulate a complete and logical plan for data analysis that will adequately answer the research questions and probe alternative explanations

• interpret research findings and draw appropriate conclusions

By the end of this course, students will have a deeper appreciation of literature and literary movements in general.

By the end of this course, students will be able to:• identify and describe the major literary movements of the 20th

century• perform close readings of literary texts • evaluate a literary work based on selected and articulated

standards

‘Outcome-based’ Approach: Criticisms

We can only articulate intended learning outcomes. students may take a different approach to a topic, leading to unintended – but worthwhile – learning outcomes.

Outcomes can stifle creativity. This can be so when outcomes are either too narrowly framed, or when they are seen as the only possible outcomes from the learning process.

The use of outcomes can lead to spoon-feeding, and students can come to see that all they need achieve can be contained within the outcomes.

An educational ‘straight-jacket’?

When planning a session or programme, paying attention to how the objectives or outcomes will be achieved (through appropriate teaching and learning methods), assessed and evaluated requires active and overt consideration of the educational process: the interaction of teachers, students and knowledge.

Stenhouse (1975) thought of an objective-led curriculum as an educational ‘straightjacket’, proposing a shift to a process-driven model in which the facilitation of learning is the central concern, and outcomes become unpredictable.

Hussey and Smith (2008) call this the ‘corridor of tolerance’, allowing space for learning outcomes to emerge through the learning process.

To summarise:

DO have a learning objective clear in your mind before you plan your lesson

DO feel free to share it with students in as creative and interesting a way as you’re capable of

DO have success criteria against which progress can be measured

DO refer back to your learning objective at various points in the lesson and get students to explain how far they’ve met it.

DON’T just get students to copy them down in their books and tick them at the end of the lesson.

Learning objectives and outcomes in the

classroom environment

Example 1

The Soldier’s Depression Feedback

Name: Date:

LO: To understand how Sassoon shows the depression of the soldier in ‘Suicide in the Trenches’.

Know the soldier’s change in emotion.

Evaluate the effect of the poem on the

reader.

Analyse the metaphor used to

show this change in emotion.

Success criteria:• You have made a clear point (1 mark)

• You have backed it up with appropriate evidence from the poem. (2 marks)

• You have explained how this evidence demonstrates your point (3 marks)

• You have linked your answer to your own knowledge of WW1 (4 marks)

WWW:

EBI:

Student Response: To improve my work I have...

Literacy:

Example 2

Our Learning Journey

A pictorial ‘learning journey’ provides the ‘big picture’, and can

be interpreted by students.

Learning Objective: To understand the key events in Sassoon’s ‘Suicide in the Trenches’.

To know what life in the trenches was like during

WW1.

To analyse the key events in

Sassoon’s poem.

To predict the content of

Sassoon’s poem.

Steps to SuccessThe learning continuum is used to

break the ultimate learning objective into distinct segments.

To know what life in the trenches was like during WW1.

Step to Success

LO: To understand the key events in Sassoon’s ‘Suicide

in the Trenches’.

Activity

Using your own knowledge and what you have learnt, think about what

soldiers in the trenches might...

SEEHEAR

TOUCHSMELLFEEL

The main objective and outcome are incorporated alongside

activity instructions to guide students.

LO: To know what life in the trenches was like during WW1.

I can see...• • •

I can hear...• • •

I can touch...• • •

I can feel...• • •

I can smell...• • •

Extension: How do you think soldiers in the trenches might have felt? Write in full sentences e.g. They may have felt sad because they missed home.• • •

Colour-coded learning objectives are included on activity resources

to retain a sense of purpose.

LO: To predict the content of Sassoon’s poem.

Siegfried Sassoon’s poem was called ‘SUICIDE IN THE TRENCHES’.

Predict what might happen in Sassoon’s poem:

I think that...

I think this because...

Words I might see in

the poem are...

Colour-coded learning objectives are included on activity resources

to retain a sense of purpose.

LO: To analyse the key events in Sassoon’s poem.

Stanza Analysis Mark

I knew a simple soldier boyWho grinned at life in empty joy,Slept soundly through the lonesome dark,And whistled early with the lark.

Q: How is the soldier feeling in this stanza? How do you know?

A:

In winter trenches, cowed and glum,With crumps and lice and lack of rum,He put a bullet through his brain.No one spoke of him again.

Q: What happens to the soldier? Why does this happen?

A:

You smug-faced crowds with kindling eyeWho cheer when soldier lads march by,Sneak home and pray you'll never knowThe hell where youth and laughter go.

Extension Q: What does the poet think of the crowds?

A:

Colour-coded learning objectives are included on activity resources

to retain a sense of purpose.

Learning Objective: To understand the key events in Sassoon’s ‘Suicide in the Trenches’.

To know what life in the trenches was like during

WW1.

To analyse the key events in

Sassoon’s poem.

To predict the content of

Sassoon’s poem.

Steps to SuccessThe learning continuum is referred to

throughout the lesson and during the plenary session, and is discussed with students.

Next time...

The learning journey is displayed at the end of the lesson to guide discussion about future learning.

Example 3

The Hunger Games: Dystopian fiction

Learning Objective

To explore the conventions of dystopian fiction

investigate rules

A work of fiction describing an imaginary place where life is extremely bad because of deprivation or oppression or terror

The Learning Objective includes active verbs related to Blooms, and key terminology is defined.

The Hunger Games: Dystopian fiction

Before... Today... Next...

1. To know the difference between

utopian and dystopian fiction

2. To understand the conventions of

dystopian fiction

3. To create your own dystopian society

You will be exploring the context of The

Hunger Games, referring to factors that inspired the

author and the story

The learning objective is broken down into distinct segments to enable students to track their progress, whilst the ‘before’ and

‘next’ sections provide the ‘big picture’ or the ‘learning journey’.

Learning Objective: To explore the conventions of dystopian fiction

1. To know the difference

between utopian and dystopian

fiction

3. To create your own dystopian

society

2. To understand the conventions

of dystopian fiction

Steps to SuccessThe learning continuum is used to

differentiate levels of progress using Bloom’s verbs