preview

Developing Meaningful And Measurable Learning Goals

Better Essays

Before moving forward with how to develop meaningful and measurable learning goals, it should be noted that learning goals, objectives, competencies, learning outcomes, and proficiencies are all terms that describe what students should learn. Unfortunately, not all educators use these terms consistently.
My research clearly demonstrates that assessment resources are full of terminology such as “mission”, “goals”, “objectives”, “outcomes”, but it is lacking in any agreement for a specific meaning of each of these terms. Part of the difficulty comes from changes in approaches to education; shifts from objective-based, to competency-based, to outcomes-based, and so on.
Traditionally, educators have been taught to start any educational …show more content…

Therefore, it is teacher and student focused. An outcome, a final product or end result, speaks to the goal, so its focus is the student, because learning is the goal for the student.” In other words, the central focus is to redirect the teaching and learning process to better align with the learner. This also lines up better with professional practice, where outcomes promote quality improvement.
Research demonstrates that the most obvious reason objectives or outcomes still exist and persist in education is that they are thought to capture the complexity of the teaching and learning process. Many educators believe they have the simplicity and practicality needed for mapping out and evaluating understanding of what is to be learned. So the question remains, how do educators operationalize the difference between objectives and outcomes?
Meaningful and measurable learning outcomes can be developed by asking one simple question; “What is expected for students to know or be able to do by the end of the session?” This is where the subject matter experts come in; the faculty. Faculty members know almost intuitively what students should be able to accomplish and master. Therefore, faculty members are the best qualified to answer the question. The problem is that most faculty members are hired for their content expertise and seldom function in the area of instructional design. In the vocational setting for

Get Access