CONSTRUCTING LEARNING

OUTCOMES
Evelyn Grace T. Tadeo
Competency. A general statement detailing the desired
knowledge and skills of student graduating from our
course or program.

Objective. A very general statement about the larger

goals of the course or program.

Outcome. A very specific statement that describes

exactly what a student will be able to do in some
measurable way. A competency may have several
specific learning outcomes so a course typically contains
more outcomes than competencies.
Learning Objectives, Outcomes, or Competencies:
Does It Really Matter?
Instructional designers and curriculum developers can
spend hours arguing about fine distinctions between
terms such as “learning objectives,” “learning
outcomes,” or “skill-based competencies.” These
arguments usually focus on differences in breadth,
specificity, measurability, and transfer (from the
learning environment to the real world). For example,
some learning theorists suggest that “objectives” are
broader than “outcomes.” Others promote
“competencies” as the best way to measure how well
skills are transferred from the training environment to
the job situation.
 Learning Objectives, Outcomes, or
Competencies: Does It Really Matter?
So which of these terms should we rely on when
designing instruction? I say, ignore the nomenclature. It
simply doesn’t matter. What one content developer
calls learning objectives, another will call an outcome,
and yet another will call a competency. No matter what
name you choose, what matters is how useful these
statements are in providing a good blueprint for the
design of instruction, assessment, and evaluation.
 Guidelines for Writing Course Learning Outcomes

1. State clear expectations - learners know what they

have to do to demonstrate that they have achieved the
learning outcomes;

2. Represent culminating performances of learning and

achievement; (meaning the highest stage of
development, or exit, end performance)

“On successful completion of this module, students

should be able to:” [list of learning outcomes]
 Guidelines for Writing Course Learning Outcomes

3. Describe performances that are significant, essential,

and verifiable

meaning that performances can be verified or observed

in some way and that they represent more than one
small aspect of behavior; this also means that the
performance is considered to be essential for success in
the course
Start your learning outcome statements with an action
verb.
 Guidelines for Writing Course Learning Outcomes
The key to writing a truly assessable learning
outcome is to use language that describes learning
in such a way that it can be measured. To state that
a student will understand or know some fact or
topic is a good objective, but it is not easily
measured. How do we tell whether a student really
understands a concept? Generally, understanding
accompanies the ability to use the concept. So a
true learning outcome should focus on what we
want the student to be able to do at the end of our
course or the curriculum. Moreover, this allows us
to determine a way to assess the student mastery
of the outcome.
 Guidelines for Writing Course Learning Outcomes

Students will understand figurative language.

Students will be able to list and define the types of

figurative language.

Students will be able to identify and define the

following types of figurative language: similes,
metaphors, personification, idioms, and clichés.
 Guidelines for Writing Course Learning Outcomes

Start your learning outcome statements with an

action verb.
The verbs associated with each level of Bloom’s
taxonomy (Bloom 1956) are a good starting point
for writing learning outcomes at each level.
Bloom’s taxonomy (Bloom 1956) Keywords
Knowledge: remembering Define, identify, label, state, list,
information match
Comprehension: explaining the Describe, paraphrase,
meaning of information summarize, estimate
Application: using abstracts in Determine, chart, implement,
concrete situations prepare, solve, use, develop
Analysis: breaking down a whole Point out, differentiate,
into component parts distinguish, discriminate,
compare
Synthesis: putting parts together Create, design, plan, organize,
to form a new and integrated generate, write
whole
Evaluation: making judgments
about the merits of ideas, Appraise, critique, judge, weigh,
materials or phenomena evaluate, select
 Guidelines for Writing Course Learning Outcomes

“Care should be taken in using words such as

‘understand’ and ‘know’ if you cannot be sure that
students will understand what it means to know or
understand in a given context” (Univ NSW).
 Guidelines for Writing Course Learning Outcomes

4. preferably state only ONE performance per

outcome;
5. refer to learning that is transferable; (meaning
that the learning can readily be transferred from a
class to a work place environment, or from one
workplace environment to another, etc.)
 Guidelines for Writing Course Learning Outcomes

6. not dictate curriculum content; (meaning that

there could be a number of different ways to
achieve the outcome.)
7. reflect the overriding principles of equity and
fairness and accommodate the needs of diverse
learners.
8. represent the minimal acceptable level of
performance that a student needs to demonstrate
in order to be considered successful.
 Guidelines for Writing Course Learning Outcomes

Nailalapat ang kahulugan ng demand sa pang araw-araw

na pamumuhay ng bawat pamilya . (AP9MYK-IIa-1)

Learning Outcomes:
Sa loob ng isang oras, ang mag-aaral ay inaasahang:

Natutukoy ang kahulugan ng demand;

Napahahalagahan ang ugnayan ng presyo at demand
gamit ang tatlong pamamaraan sa pagpapakita ng
konsepto ng demand;
Nako-compute ang Quantity Demanded gamit ang
Demand Function at nailalapat ang mga puntos sa graph.
Examples of good student learning outcomes:

➤ The students can list three causes of the Seven Years’ War.
➤ The students can solve word problems requiring the sum of
two numbers.
➤ The students can write a correctly formatted and punctuated
business letter.
➤ The students can translate a French paragraph into English.
➤ The students can count to 20 aloud.
➤ The students can list three differences between the climates
of Canada and Mexico.
➤ The students can write balanced chemical equations.
➤ The students can state the main idea of short stories.
➤ The students can explain the water cycle in their own words.
 Examples of good student learning outcomes:
Other information can be added to elaborate an objective. For
example, some teachers wish to include information in their
objectives about the conditions of student performance and
about how well the student must perform the objective in
order to master it.
 
➤ Given 10 word problems requiring the sum of two numbers,
the students can solve at least eight correctly.
➤ Given a diagram of the water cycle, the students can explain
in their own words what the water cycle is with fewer than two
errors.
➤ Given a French paragraph of less than 20 lines and a
dictionary, the students can translate the paragraph into English
in 5 minutes with fewer than six errors.
 Examples of good student learning outcomes:

Extended objectives provide more details about the

conditions under which the behavior must be
performed and the level of performance the student
must show. Extended objectives take more time to
prepare than their simpler counterparts and are
sometimes difficult to state prior to the start of
instruction. Consequently, the simpler model suffices
in most instructional situations.
 Linking Learning Outcomes to Assessment

The assessment process examines the extent to which

students have achieved the intended outcomes of the
unit. Therefore, in designing an assessment program it is
essential that the learning outcomes form the basis of
what is assessed and how it is assessed.
 
Each outcome should be assessed. If a stated outcome is
not assessed, neither you nor your students will know if it
has been realized. If the learning outcome is framed in
such a way that assessment is not feasible, you need to
reframe it so that demonstration of attainment is possible.
 Linking Learning Outcomes to Assessment
 
This does not mean that you need the same number of
assessment tasks as learning outcomes – for example, the
one assessment task may measure the level of attainment
of a number of related learning outcomes. You can
construct a simple table to map the links between your
learning outcomes and assessment tasks. This may not
only reveal where you might be under assessing, but also
highlight where you may be over assessing a particular
learning outcome.
 Linking Learning Outcomes to Teaching and Learning
Strategies

The action verbs of your learning outcomes will flag the sorts of
learning activities that will best lead to their attainment. For
example, if one learning outcome is for students to be able to
analyze and interpret data, then there should be activities
where students are asked to analyze and interpret data, and
opportunities for them to monitor, assess and receive feedback
on their progress regarding these skills. If, as an outcome,
students are expected to be able to construct a written
argument based on particular discipline conventions, then they
will need to be taught the skills involved and engaged in
activities that allow them to practice and refine those skills.
 Questions Often Asked about Educational Objectives

Is it necessary to write down objectives?

Beginning teachers and students in a teaching practicum

usually are required to write lesson objectives. Even if you are
an experienced teacher, listing your objectives reminds you to
focus on what students are expected to get out of instruction,
not just what your teaching activities will be. Annual
assessment of existing objectives is an important part of any
teacher’s classroom assessment responsibilities, because each
year students and curricula change.
 Questions Often Asked about Educational Objectives
What are higher-level objectives?

Cognitive behaviors can be divided into lower-level ones such

as memorizing and remembering and higher-level ones
requiring more complex thinking behaviors. Higher-level
behaviors, or higher-order thinking skills (HOTS), include
activities such as analyzing information, applying information
and rules to solve new problems, comparing and contrasting
objects or ideas, and synthesizing disparate pieces of
information into a single, organized idea. In the following
examples, the lower-level objective calls only for memorization,
while the higher-level objective calls for a more complex
behavior.
 Questions Often Asked about Educational Objectives
Lower level: The student can write a definition of each
vocabulary word.
Higher level: The student can write sentences using each
vocabulary word correctly.
 
Lower level: The student can match quotes from a short story
to the characters who said them.
Higher level: The student can contrast the motives of the
protagonist and the antagonist in a short story.
 
 Questions Often Asked about Educational Objectives
 
Lower level: The student can write the formula for the
Pythagorean theorem.
Higher level: The student can use the Pythagorean theorem to
solve new word problems involving the length of ladders
needed by the fire department.
 
All teachers should be aware of the difference between lower-
and higher-level thinking skills and should strive to incorporate
some higher-level objectives in their plans and instruction.
 Questions Often Asked about Educational Objectives

 How many objectives should I state in a subject area?

The answer to this question depends in part upon the time

frame being considered and the specificity of the
objectives: the longer the period of instruction and the
more specific the objectives, the more objectives that can
be stated with expectation for students to attain. In
general, there may be many instructional objectives and
fewer educational objectives. Also, higher-level objectives
usually take longer to teach and learn, so fewer of them
can be taught in a given instructional period; it takes
longer to teach students to interpret graphs than to
memorize a formula.
 Questions Often Asked about Educational Objectives

 
How many objectives should I state in a subject area?

Teachers who have hundreds of objectives for the year’s

instruction either are expecting too much of themselves
and their students or are stating their objectives too
narrowly. On the other hand, teachers who have only five
objectives for the school year are either underestimating
their students or stating their objectives much too broadly.
 Questions Often Asked about Educational Objectives

Are there any cautions I should keep in mind regarding

objectives?

Objectives are usually stated before instruction actually

begins and are meant to guide both instruction and
assessment. However, objectives are not meant to be
followed slavishly when circumstances suggest the need
for adjustments. Because objectives are written before
instruction starts and because it is difficult to anticipate
the flow of classroom activities during instruction,
teachers must exercise discretion regarding how closely
they will follow the objectives they stated prior to the start
of actual instruction.