Difference Between Learning Outcomes and Objectives
Difference Between Learning Outcomes and Objectives
Learning outcomes and objectives’ are often used synonymously, although they are not
the same. In simple words, objectives are concerned with teaching and the teacher’s
However, objectives and learning outcomes are usually written in same terms.
Learning outcomes facilitate teachers more precisely to tell students what is expected of
• help students to learn more effectively. They know where they stand and the
• make it clear what students can hope to gain from a particular course or lecture.
• help instructors select the appropriate teaching strategy, for example lecture,
• help instructors more precisely to tell their colleagues what a particular activity is
designed to achieve.
1. Definition of Objectives
Education is, without any doubt, a purposeful activity. Every step of this activity has and
should definitely have a particular purpose. Therefore learning objectives are a prime and
intended change in the behaviour of the learners. For this purpose it is necessary
to use the verb in the statement of the objective which identifies an observable
performance. In other words objective should not only indicate the change in the
behaviour of the students but also the level or degree of that change as well. For
this purpose the statement of the objective must indicate a degree of accuracy, a
• Conditions - Thirdly, an objective should describe the conditions under which the
learning will occur. In other words, under what circumstances the learner will
develop the competency? What will the learner be given or already be expected
to know to accomplish the learning? For example, a condition could be stated as,
told a case study, shown a diagram, given a map, after listening a lecture or
college examiners considered the need for a system of classifying educational goals for
the evaluation of student performance. Years later and as a result of this effort, Benjamin
Bloom formulated a classification of "the goals of the educational process". Eventually,
abstraction of questions that commonly occur in educational settings (Bloom, 1965). This
classification principles', or 'structure'. The followings are six levels in this taxonomy:
In this unit you will learn that how important are the objectives and learning outcomes in
the process of assessment. A teacher should know that the main advantage of objectives
is to guide the teaching-learning activities. In simple words these are the desired
designed and subsequently assessment is carried out through different methods. One of
the most common methods to assess the ability of a student in any specific subject is a
test. Most tests taken by students are developed by teachers. The goal of this unit is for
you to be able to design, construct, and analyze a test for a given set of objectives or
content area. Therefore, the objective are key components for developing a test. These are
the guiding principles for assessment. For achievement testing cognitive domain is very
Objectives developed by Benjamin Bloom (1956) deals with activities like memorizing,
interpreting, analyzing and so on. This taxonomy provides a useful way of describing the
simplest to complex. One of the important task for a teacher while designing a test is the
selection and sampling of test items from course contents. The appropriateness of the
developing a test should begin with the identification of content domain at first stage and
what we want students to learn and what content we want our tests to cover.
Defining Learning Outcomes?
Learning outcomes are the statements indicating what a student is expected to be able to
do as a result of a learning activity. Major difference between learning objectives and out
comes is that objectives are focused upon the instruction, what will be given to the
students and the outcomes are focused upon the students what behaviour change they are