The Birth of Outcomes, and How They Went Awry
In the 1990s, reformers thought they could improve teaching and learning in college if they insisted that colleges declare their specific “learning goals,” with instructors defining “the knowledge, intellectual skills, competencies, and attitudes that each student is expected to gain.”13 The reformers’ theory was that these faculty-enumerated learning objectives would serve as the hooks that would then be used by administrators to initiate reviews of actual student work, the key to improving teaching. The logic went like this:
Step 1. Faculty members declare their goals for students, what became known as “student learning outcomes,” or SLOs.
Step 2. Observers seek evidence of whether students
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They went along because it was hard to oppose something that seemed, on the surface, to be so reasonable. What could go wrong?15
Step 1 turned out to be a bad starting place. The supposed outcomes of higher education became embodied in lists of topics that a course covers, with verbs added to index what students will “be able to do.” Universities across the country created their lists of SLOs, and they tend to look pretty similar. Gonzaga University actually has a manual for how to write SLOs, and it includes this example:
General Psychology: Students who complete this course will be able to:
Identify and define basic terms and concepts which are needed for advanced courses in psychology
Outline the scientific method as it is used by psychologists
Apply the principles of psychology to practical problems
Compare and contrast the multiple determinants of behavior (environmental, biological, and genetic)16
As a list of topics, these are not objectionable. But Ewell’s original concept had been that the SLOs would indicate “the particular levels of knowledge, skills, and abilities that a student has attained at the end (or as a result) of his or her engagement in a particular set of collegiate experiences.” The example from Gonzaga clearly does not. The Gonzaga list could be for a high school course, or an undergraduate course, or even a graduate school course.
In 2014, Ewell and others released a compendium of model SLO-blurbs that claims to
Taking a look at standard 1, a leader has to focus on creating visions and goals for students to be successful. One of the challenges I see is that a vision and goal is very important and having to create a vision and goal that can be attained by every student isn’t as easy as
Our curriculum is guided by the achievement of specific learning outcomes. At the completion of the program student will be able to:
It is important for my students to understand and value learning goals in the classroom. At the start of every chapter students will be supplied an outline of what they are going to encounter in the upcoming weeks.
Learning Outcome-outline what a pupil will be able to do, know and understand having completed the topic. Lists the resources which will be needed in the teaching and learning of a particular topic. Introducing the topic (in some plans only) outlines an approach to introducing
In what ways will the content of this course help you in your quest to make your school and classroom more meaningful and effective for all students? One way in which the content of this course that will help in my quest to make my school and classroom more meaningful and effective for all students are reshaping the curriculum. According to Nieto, "Schools must take a serious look at their curriculum, pedagogy, retention and tracking policies, testing, hiring practices, and all the other policies and practices that create a school climate that is either empowering or disempowering for those who work and learn there"(Nieto,1996). The curriculum should be integrated, interdisciplinary, meaningful, and student-centered. Also, it should include issues and topics related to the students' background and culture. Moreover, it should challenge the students to develop higher-order knowledge and skills.
The lesson that is perhaps the most important one we learned this week is the scientific method. The scientific method is not only used in particularly every subsection in science, but allows psychologists to test different ideas about behavior. Pastorino and Doyle-Portillo in the General Psychology textbook describes the scientific method as “ a set of rules for gathering and analyzing information that enables you to test an idea or hypothesis”. (8) All scientists adhere to these standard set of rules in order to be able to better analyze the data and share the results throughout the scientific community. The scientific method consists of a few distinct parts: allow for observation, make a prediction, form a hypothesis, choose a research method/ design an
|implementation, and stewardship of a vision of learning that is shared and supported by all stakeholders. (ISLLC 2008: 1: ELCC 1) |
The two main desired outcomes for students in the program are a higher level of
Include the appropriate objective number and rationale for using the selected HP2020 objective (use at least one objective from one of the 24 focus areas). If an HP2020 objective does not support your teaching, explain how your teaching applies to one of the two overarching HP2020 goals.
In order for the student to succeed the educational system must provide transition services which should be tailored to the student and their needs. What this looks like is having annual goals and objectives in order to get to the annual goals. This will allow the student to be able to succeed.
PSYC100-Introduction to Psychology provided me with a very broad comprehensive introduction to the basic principles and research concepts in the field of psychology. Some of the highlights of this class included information about the brain and nervous system structure and function, learning and memory, language, intelligence, psychological disorders and therapies, personality, and social behavior. This class also introduced some of the various career fields that a degree in psychology allows people to go into such teaching, conducting research, providing therapy, and working as a consultant in business and industry. This class helped me to determine whether or
Overall, the Articulated Learning Statements served as an academic guide to acknowledge, recognise and reflect on our understanding of the learning acquired throughout the course.
The academic learning goals will be written on the board and communicated to the students.
In addition, they may be required to take a basic educational psychology course that focuses essentially on instructional theory to the exclusion of application, particularly learning constructs related to mental health”(Koller & Bertel, 2006, p. 201).
Psychology takes a holistic approach that fosters intercultural understanding and respect. In the core of the IB psychology course, the biological level of analysis demonstrates what all humans share, whereas the cognitive and sociocultural levels of analysis reveal the immense diversity of influences that produce human behaviour and mental