Learning Environments: what they are and why they matter

Learning outcomes for the scepticalTansy JessopSLTI workshop2 February 2017

By the end of this sessionIn groups decide on what the learning outcomes for this session will be and write three to five learning outcomes on flipchart paper.

By the end of this session, students will be able to

These are mine You will know more about the benefits and limitations of learning outcomes;You will be sceptical about the claim that learning outcomes are student-centred;You will critique the idea that LOs are objective truths;You will know how to subvert the system and make good use of learning outcomes

What troubles you about learning outcomes?Go towww.menti.comand use the code25 98 10

Write down words which spring to mind about the troubling aspects of LOs?

Lets chat about them.

There are maggots in the apple (Hussey and Smith, 2002)

Economic tail is wagging the educational dog5

My maggotsAre they student-centred?Cut and paste?Straitjacketing education?Impossible to achieve in complex learning encountersA choice from a wider selection of outcomes made on personal groundsElevated to the status of truthAn audit trail and a tick box affair

1. They are student-centredLearning outcomes mark the move from teacher-directed to student-centred learning (Brooks et al. 2014).

They are about what students will learn rather than what I will teach.

Dominant discourse in HE. Argued that it puts the emphasis on the student.

Really, are they student-centred?

2. Cut and pasteWeve had these learning outcomes for years. I think we simply copied them from some other course and changed the words (Academic in Dobbins et al. 2014, 9)

I would like learning outcomes that are just well written. And written in English because quite a lot of them just dont make sense because theyre so badly written. Thats quite a big thing for me(Student in Brooks et al, 2014)

3. Straitjacketing education

The entire system is designed to oblige the student to learn, indeed, Biggs refers to the students being entrapped within a web of consistency engaging them with the appropriate learning activities and objectives (Hussey and Smith 2010)

Place the teacher in a tight cornerThe effective teacher combines enthusiasm for their subject with a responsiveness to individual and group needs. In doing so, the teacher has to be prepared to shift the locus of control away from her/himself towards the student, thereby reducing the chances of achieving a set of pre-specified outcomes and of covering the syllabus (Hussey and Smith 2003, 360).

Limit corridors of tolerance (McAlpine 1999)

narrowing learning for studentsInterviewer: Do you think theres too much focus on the learning outcomes then?Student A: To a certain extentits very focused, you get blinkered and you miss other stuff out.Student B: I think it needs to be emphasised that learning outcomes arent the be all and end all.(Dobbins et al. 2014)

4. Impossible to achieve or measure in complex HE

Look at an example from the PGCTLHE at Solent.

How easy is for students to achieve and academics to measure these outcomes?

5 & 6. Truth or selection?

Spurious sense of precision and clarity16

7. Tick box audit trail

Critiques from Hussey & Smith (2002)Spurious sense of precision and clarity,Insensitive to different contexts and disciplines;In danger of being interpreted by students and tutors as thresholds;They need to be contextualised in order to make any practical sense of them;That they can restrict and straitjacket good teaching.

So what is valuable about learning outcomes?Go towww.menti.comand use the code54 53 46

What remains valuable about Learning Outcomes?

Positive approachesHelps you to backward map, think forward from a student perspectiveUseful curriculum design toolWorks better for sessions that units than coursesProvides co-creation opportunitiesShades of outcomes

Intended to Emergent Learning Outcomes (Megginson 1994; 1996)

Learning Outcomes 301Attainments: mastery of mental procedures associated with tasksUnderstanding: of ideas, concepts and processesCognitive and creative: imaginative construction of meaningUsing: how to practice, manipulate, behaveHigher-order learning: advanced thinking, reasoning, metacognition;Dispositions: attitudes, perceptions, motivationsMembership, inclusion, self-worth: readiness to participate in..

Dont be simplistic about levels

In first year modules, the outcomes will state that students will be able to name, describe, and repeat; the second year modules will specify explaining, understanding and comprehending, while at the third year level, students will be capable of evaluating, analyzing, criticizing and so forth (Hussey 2008).

Intellectual Development of Students

The feast of accountability celebrates the death of trust (Holt 1981)

ReferencesBarnett, R. and Coate, K. 2005. Engaging the Curriculum in HE. Maidenhead. SRHE Open University.Brooks, S. et al. 2014. Learning about learning outcomes: the student perspective. Teaching in Higher Education 19(6). 721-733.Dobbins, K. 2016. Understanding and enacting learning outcomes: the academic's perspective. Studies in Higher Education 41(7) 1217-1235Hussey, T. and Smith, P. 2008. Learning Outcomes: a conceptual analysis. Teaching in Higher Education. 13.1. 107-115.Hussey, T, and Smith, P. 2003. The Uses of Learning Outcomes. Teaching in Higher Education.8:3. 357-368.Hussey, T, and Smith, P. 2002. The trouble with Learning Outcomes. Active Learning in HE. 3.3. 220-233Knight, P. (2002) The Achilles' Heel of Quality: The assessment of student learning, Quality in Higher Education, 8:1, 107-115.