Transcript Document 7531797

Learning Outcomes –
Moving from Teaching to
Learning
Professor Bairbre Redmond
College of Human Sciences
UCD
Focus of Paper
1. Nature and Benefits of Learning Outcomes
2. Writing Learning Outcomes
3. Teaching for Learning
4. Assessing Learning Outcomes
5. Outcomes at Different Levels
What is a Learning Outcome?
Learning Outcomes
• Clearly identify skills and knowledge that a
learner can demonstrate as a result of
successfully completing a part of a learning
programme
• They Include
– Knowledge and Understanding
– Problem Solving
– Professional Skills – Interviewing etc.
– Generic Skills – Teamwork etc
• They describe an action or outcome which is
demonstrable and assessable.
Benefits of Learning Outcomes
• Guide students in their learning - what is
expected of them, in turn helping them to
succeed in their studies.
• Help staff to focus on exactly what they want
students to achieve in terms of both knowledge
and skills.
• Provide a useful guide to inform employers about
the general knowledge and understanding that a
graduate will possess.
How to write a Learning
Outcome at Module Level
Bloom’s Taxonomy
• Bloom’s Taxonomy (1956), despite its age, is
still one of the best aids to writing good
learning outcomes.
• Bloom identified six categories of learning –
knowledge, comprehension, application, analysis,
synthesis and evaluation
• Each level has its own particular questions
Bloom’s Taxonomy of Educational
Objectives
Evaluate
judge, critique, justify,
verify, assess, recommend
Analyze
compare, contrast, classify,
categorize, derive, model
Comprehend
explain, paraphrase
Synthesize
create, construct, design,
improve, produce, propose
Apply
calculate, solve,
determine, apply
Remember
list, recite
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Writing Learning Outcomes –
Problems Encountered
• Modules are built out of pieces of old courses with
different expectations
• Academics focus on the teaching aspects of the
module
“In this module students will be introduced to subject of
the core ethical principles in social work”
Rather than
• By the end of this module student will be able to
demonstrate an understanding of the core ethical
principles in social work [knowledge, comprehension]
and
• be able to apply them in different case settings
[application]
Writing Learning Outcomes –
Problems Encountered
Staff use vague terms in module descriptors that
cannot be assessed
For Example –
“By the end of this module students will understand
the importance of post-renaissance European art
in the context of art history”
Writing Learning Outcomes –
Problems Encountered
Would be far better expressed as:
By the end of this module students will be able to
• Evaluate and criticise post-renaissance European
art within its historical context
• Date and identify key works of this specific period
• Demonstrate an understanding of the particular
art-historical debates that have taken place about
this period
• Show ability to argue why this particular place
and time raise interesting issues about the
discipline as a whole
University of Sussex
Teaching for Learning
Teaching for Learning
• Teaching approaches need to match the learning
that you expect to generate
• Teaching strategies should be proven to generate
the type of learning that you want your students
to achieve
Knowledge

Lecture, reading
Application

Tutorial, laboratory,
Practice Skill 
experience
Clinical placement/work
Synthesis/Evaluative  case studies, research
projects, group work etc.
Teaching for Learning – Problems
Encountered
• Module descriptors introduced, but ‘old’ teaching
patterns stay in place
“I’ve always taught this course this way”
• Module descriptors specify ‘higher’ levels of
learning, but teaching approaches can’t deliver
them
e.g. Large lectures are used to promote analytic
thinking
• Poor use of learning activities like case studies,
EPBL,
• Poor use of visuals and ‘Death by Powerpoint’.
Assessing Learning
Outcomes
Assessing Learning Objectives
• Assessments measure how successfully students
have attained learning outcomes. You must
return to learning outcomes to design good
assessment
• There should be a connection between the way
students learn and the way they are assessed.
• There should be a connection between the levels
of learning expected of students and their
assessment
• Assessments should contain both formative and
summative elements
Assessing Learning Outcomes –
Problems Encountered
When courses are modularised, assessments
increase
Most assessment is still confined to exams and
essay writing –not the most effective way means
by which to measure higher levels of learning
Fear of plagiarism keeps many from adopting
alternative-to-exam assessment
Even when new teaching approaches are used,
institutional structures may push staff towards
using ‘old’ assessment approaches … “we’re
geared towards a half-term”
Different Levels
of Outcome
Hierarchy of Learning Outcomes
• Module Level: ‘On successful completion of the
module, students will be able to …’
• Intermediate Level: ‘At the end of this year
(stage) a student will be able to …”
• Top Level: ‘A successful graduate from this
programme (degree) will be able to …”. These
are Dublin Descriptor* statements.
*Dublin Descriptors: Generic statements of
typical expectations of achievements and abilities
associated with awards that represent the end of
each Bologna cycle.
Level and Programme Outcomes
Should include clear articulation of:
• Knowledge and Understanding needed, & the
• Intellectual skills required to make use of this
knowledge and understanding.
Also need to specify:
• Practical skills (i.e. competence in specific
context, such as lab skills, performance skills)
• Key/transferable skills (communication,
problem solving, self-evaluation).
Challenges for Curriculum Design
using Learning Outcomes
• Lack of Overall Design - Individual module
outcomes are sound, but they don’t build well
into a programme outcomes
• Focus on Programme Length - Level
outcomes can offer greater clarity on student
gains at key points.
• Conflict between Programme StakeholdersEducators vs. Accrediting Bodies
Final Thoughts
• Within the last 10 years the profile and learning
approaches of our students has changed
dramatically.
• These transformations in student expectations,
student mobility and massification of higher
education by their nature demand educational
changes.
• Learning Outcomes make sense to students and,
in most cases, match the way they learn.
• The shift from teaching to learning is primarily a
challenge for educators and accrediting bodies,
rather than students.
Dewey on Change…
Familiarity breeds contempt, but it also breeds
something like affection. We get used to the
chains we wear and miss them when removed …
unpleasant activities may become agreeable if
long enough persisted in”.
John Dewey 1902