Developing course learning goals and graduate attributes
Definition
The learning goals for a course are statements of what students should be able to do on successfully completing the course.
Writing learning goals for a course
Learning goals set out in more detail what it will mean for students to have achieved the course's purpose.
For a typical university course about five to ten goals should suffice. If there are fewer goals then they may become too vague or too general to be of use either to students in guiding their learning or to you in assessing students' work. If there are many more goals then they tend to become too detailed for students to be able to see the pattern behind them.
Key points to remember when writing learning goals
- Each goal should be concise, and it should be possible to observe the results of achieving it.
- Each goal should be expressed as something the student might achieve - not as what the teacher will do.
- The verb is crucial in stating a learning goal. Verbs such as 'understand', 'realise' and 'be aware of' should be avoided since they describe behaviour which is not observable. Vague or ambiguous verbs such as 'know' should also be avoided. For 'know' you might substitute 'define', 'list', 'apply', 'extrapolate from' or other more precise words. For the 'unobservable' words try using verbs that show how the understanding (for example) would affect the student's behaviour.
- Try to keep to one learning goal per statement. This makes for clearer statements. If there is only one goal in a statement then probably the goal will be stated in a single sentence using a single verb. Sometimes two or three goals will link logically into a single statement. In this case the touchstone is clarity. The goal must be intelligible to students of the course on the first reading.
Taxonomies
Often it is felt that lists of the kinds of goals that are possible - taxonomies - are helpful in writing objectives for a course. Taxonomies generally provide more than classification schemes for goals; they also give examples of each kind of goal. In the following PDF documents accounts are given of two methods of classifying and of generating course learning goals or goals at a more detailed level.
Bloom's Taxonomy of Educational Objectives had its origins in the objective testing movement of the 1950s and is still a very useful way of looking at writing measurable educational learning goals.
Biggs' SOLO Taxonomy starts with a consideration of the learning outcomes that have been observed
in educational settings. SOLO stands for Structure
of the Observed Educational Outcome. This method, developed by Biggs
and Collis in the late 1970s, also has considerable relevance to curriculum
development.
Examples
Here are some examples of good course learning goals and some needing improvement to various degrees.
1. Examples of good course learning goals:
The student will be able to identify the main thesis or argument of a scholarly paper in the area of this course, the premises on which this thesis depends, and the basis in the literature or elsewhere for advancing this thesis.
The student will be able to analyse the argument justifying the thesis of such a paper, including analysis of its logical consistency and validity and of the data on which the argument depends.
Comment: These goals may well represent what the student will be able to do at the conclusion of a substantial amount of teaching and study. Actually teaching them may involve helping students to achieve many intermediate goals (for example, being able to paraphrase or précis a piece of writing in the course area).
2. The following is not, in the sense used here, a course learning goal:
In this course I will teach you about the application of semiotic analysis to 'texts' you might come across in your day to day life.
Comment: Firstly, this is a statement of what the teacher will do, not what the student will achieve. Secondly, it is so general that, even converted into a statement of what the students are to do ("Students will be able to apply semiotic analysis to 'texts' they come across in their day to day lives"), it may be of little help to students in their learning. Perhaps, in this latter form, it might serve as the general goal or aim of a whole course.
3. This set of course learning goals from a basic computer science course needs improvement - see the comment at its conclusion:
We have three primary goals for this program:
- You will acquire concepts, skills, strategies and attitudes which enable you to become independent learners about computers.
- You will be aware of the capabilities and limitations of computing technologies, and be able to identify problems appropriate for computer solution.
- You will be able to select applications software and use it competently to solve problems specific to your field of study. Some examples are word processing, spreadsheets, databases and electronic mail. You can read more about these goals in your Student Handbook.
Comment: These goals are very general and rather vague (which "concepts, skills, etc..."; how will the teacher know when a student is "aware of..."). Students certainly will need the Student Handbook referred to in order to clarify them. Again, these goals might be a general statement of the purpose of the course, but are too general for our purposes.
4. This set of course learning goals comes from an engineering course at this University:
At the completion of this course, you should be able to:
- define and explain the two basic rules of communication
- demonstrate your understanding of these rules in your own written and verbal communication
- devise and confidently deliver clear written and oral proposals and reports
- identify and analyse problems in your communication and work towards solving these
- evaluate other people's written and oral communication skills
- analyse your audience and communicate appropriately
- adapt to working in teams of different
people apply basic engineering methodology to define and solve
problems.
You should also have had some fun along the way with the design project!
Comment: This is a good example of a set of learning goals.
5. Here is a good set of learning goals from an occupational therapy course offered at UQ:
On completion of this course students will be able to:
- select, describe and apply a range of assessment approaches for children and adults with neurological, musculoskeletal, developmental and emotional conditions.
- select, justify and design appropriate treatment approaches and activities for children and adults with neurological, musculoskeletal, developmental and emotional conditions.
- demonstrate clinical problem solving skills related to assessment, interpretation and treatment design.
- demonstrate techniques of assessment and develop treatment programs for children and adults (with supervision).
- use appropriate verbal and written communication skills in clinical settings.
Graduate attributes
Identify which generic and discipline specific graduate attributes will be developed in the course (these should relate to the program attributes).
Refer to the manner in which these attributes will be developed (e.g. the relationship of graduate attributes to the course content, teaching and learning processes and assessment methods).
