Summer Graduate Teaching Scholars

Preparing to Teach 2:

Learning Outcomes

May 6 and 8

1 sgts.ucsd.edu

sgts.ucsd.edu 2 Image: “Slalom course inspection” by jonwich04 on flickr CC-BY

See if you can follow this analogy:

Learning outcomes are like the gates

the skiers go through on a downhill

slalom course. There are many gates

in sequence. Some gates are easy to

pass through, some are hard.

Together, they contribute to the

course-level outcome, getting to the

bottom of the hill.

Unlike a slalom course, though, if you

miss a learning outcome in class, you

can go back and try again. When you

miss a gate, you’re out of the race.

Sure, you can get back on the course

but you can’t climb back uphill.

(P.S. If you’re going to use an analogy,

know when you’ve pushed it too far.)

Peter

Learning outcomes

complete the sentence, “By this end of

this lesson/unit/course, you will be able

to…”

begin with an action verb (“deduce”)

(more below)

tell the students what they must do to

demonstrate they “understand” the

concept

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Learning outcomes are valuable to…

the students reveals what the instructor is looking for (no

guessing what “understand” means.)

big picture of the next part of the course

allows student to check that s/he has mastered

the concept (especially when studying later)

the instructor crystallizes what the instructor actually cares

about

helps the instructor select resources like peer

instruction questions and exam questions

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several LOs giving big

picture, attitudes,

behaviors

(likely) can’t be

assessed with a single

exam question

supported by many

topic-level LOs

(if not, why not?)

many LOs defining

what it means to

“understand” at this

level (freshman, etc.)

can be (should be)

repeatedly assessed

on homework, exams

support one or more

course-level LOs

(if not, why not?)

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Course-level LOs Topic-level LOs

Topic-level

LO

Topic-level

LO

Topic-

level LO

Course-level LO #4

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Course-level LO #2

Course-level LO #3 Course-level

learning outcome (LO) #1

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level LO

Course-level LO #4

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Course-level LO #2

Course-level LO #3 Course-level

learning outcome (LO) #1

Topic-level

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LO

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Course-level LO #4

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Course-level LO #2

Course-level LO #3 Course-level

learning outcome (LO) #1

Topic-level

LO Topic-level

LO

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Course-level LO #4

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Course-level LO #2

Course-level LO #3 Course-level

learning outcome (LO) #1

Topic-level

LO Topic-level

LO

Topic-level

LO

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sync your LOs see ASTR 310 handout

Writing topic-level LOs

Writing learning outcomes is hard because you have to

recognize

declare

(admit)

what you want your students to be capable of doing.

A good start is picking the verb describing the action the students will perform to demonstrate their mastery of the concept.

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Bloom’s Taxonomy of the Cognitive Domain

(Levels of Learning)

Adapted from Carl Wieman (2007) www.cwsei.ubc.ca/resources/learn_goals.htm

6 Create: transform or combine ideas to create something new

develop, create, propose, formulate, design, invent

5 Evaluate: think critically about and defend a position

judge, appraise, recommend, justify, defend, criticize, evaluate

4 Analyze: break down concepts into parts

compare, contrast, categorize, distinguish, identify, infer

3 Apply: apply comprehension to unfamiliar situations

apply, demonstrate, use, compute, solve, predict, construct, modify

2 Understand: demonstrate understanding of ideas, concepts

describe, explain, summarize, interpret, illustrate

1 Remember: remember and recall factual knowledge

define, list, state, label, name, describe

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Learning outcome: How to read

Many instructors want their students to learn to read primary literature, like journal articles, original writings of Marx, magazine/newspaper articles, watch videos, etc.

In pairs, write 1–3 learning outcomes on your whiteboard about learning to read primary literature, written for students at the level you’ll be teaching this Summer.

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Learning outcome: your course

By yourself, write 1–3 learning outcomes on your

whiteboard for the course you’ll be teaching this

Summer.

Discuss and critique with your table-mate when

you’re both done. sgts.ucsd.edu 13

back-engineered from good exam, essay,

homework questions

back-engineered from previous

instructors’ course notes

bottom up: pick a topic and declare what

you want students to learn

Writing LOs Challenges:

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Share your LOs with your students

publish them as a document along side your

syllabus

publish them with your syllabus AND include

relevant learning goals in your lecture slides at the

beginning of each topic, even each class.

Be wary of reading them aloud: the students may not

yet have the knowledge (or jargon) to appreciate the

LOs. The LOs will be there when they study.

Don’t worry about “spoon-feeding” them – help the

students do exactly what you feel demonstrates

understanding

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Next week: best practices for

running peer instruction

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What should

students

learn?

What are

students

learning?

What instructional

approaches

help students

learn?

Carl Wieman

Science Education Initiative

cwsei.ubc.ca

sgts.ucsd.edu

Bloom’s Taxonomy of the Cognitive Domain

(Levels of Learning)

Adapted from Carl Wieman (2007) www.cwsei.ubc.ca/resources/learn_goals.htm

6 Create: transform or combine ideas to create something new

develop, create, propose, formulate, design, invent

5 Evaluate: think critically about and defend a position

judge, appraise, recommend, justify, defend, criticize, evaluate

4 Analyze: break down concepts into parts

compare, contrast, categorize, distinguish, identify, infer

3 Apply: apply comprehension to unfamiliar situations

apply, demonstrate, use, compute, solve, predict, construct, modify

2 Understand: demonstrate understanding of ideas, concepts

describe, explain, summarize, interpret, illustrate

1 Remember: remember and recall factual knowledge

define, list, state, label, name, describe

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