This posting is dein Bob Nash (bnash@coastline.edu) who supervises
instructional design for Coast Learning Systems, a division of Coastline
College in Fountain Valley California, and Michelle Wild (mwild@coastline.edu), Nash and Wild provide an easy-to-use process using Bloom's taxonomy to construct student
Learning outcomes.
Problem:
Your students don’t seem to understand what they are supposed to study and learn in your course.
Your dean is pressuring you to produce more specific and Measurable student learning outcomes.
Your students are doing well on multiple-choice and true/false tests, but are not as successful on papers, projects, or test items that require them to apply or analyze concepts learned in class.
Theory:
Following the 1948 Convention of the American Psychological Association, Benjamin Bloom took a lead in formulating a classification of intellectual behaviors important in learning. This became a taxonomy that included three overlapping domains: the cognitive, psychomotor, and affective.
For the cognitive domain, Bloom identified six levels—from the simple recall or recognition of facts (the lowest level) to the more complex synthesis and evaluation of ideas (the highest levels). For each level, specific learning behaviors were defined as well as appropriate descriptive verbs that could be used for writing instructional
outcomes.
For example:
Level 1 – Knowledge: Basic recall of information (e.g., define, identify, label, list, match, name, order, recall, recognize, state).
Level 2 – Comprehension: Understand the meaning and interpretation of information and problems (e.g., classify, describe, discuss, explain, express, report, restate, review, translate).
Level 3 – Application: Apply what was learned in the classroom to Novel situations (e.g., apply, choose, demonstrate, dramatize, employ, illustrate, interpret, operate, practice, schedule, sketch, solve, use, write).
Level 4 – Analysis: Break down material or concepts into component parts so that the organizational structure may be understood (e.g., analyze, appraise, categorize, compare, contrast, criticize, differentiate, discriminate, distinguish, examine, experiment, question, test).
Level 5 – Synthesis – Use component parts to form a new whole, with emphasis on creating a new meaning or structure (e.g., arrange, assemble, collect, compose, construct, create, design, develop, formulate, manage, organize, plan, prepare, propose, set up).
Level 6 – Evaluation -- Judge the value of material (e.g., appraise, argue, assess, defend, estimate, judge, predict, rate, support, value, evaluate).
Bloom found that over 95% of the test questions students encounter require them to think only at the lowest possible level—knowledge—the simple recall of information, requiring only rote memorization. While most quizzes and exams assess performance at the lowest levels of the taxonomy, research has shown that students remember more when they have learned to handle (process) the topic at higher levels of the taxonomy.
Application:
Teaching students to learn course material at a higher level not only requires the instructor to evaluate students using exam questions that involve more than rote memorization and basic comprehension. It also requires faculty to present information and create activities and performance assessments that require higher-order thinking skills.
The following steps can be used to help integrate higher-order thinking skills into your classes:
1. Analyze your course content, determine what you want students to be able to do after completing the course successfully, and identify what level(s) of learning they should reach in Bloom’s taxonomy.
2. Write course-level and lesson-level learning outcomes using appropriate verbs in the taxonomy.
3. Present content using teaching and learning strategies that are appropriate for the outcomes and the level(s) of learning expected.
4. Design and or recommend learning experiences, practice exercises, and assignments (i.e., time on task) and provide feedback on these assignments to help students achieve the appropriate level(s) of learning.
5. Evaluate student performance using assessments that test at the appropriate level(s) of learning.
If test and evaluation items are used that only require lower-level thinking skills such as knowledge and comprehension, students will not develop and use their higher-order skills even if instructional methods that employ these skills are implemented. This follows the maxim that individuals do not do what is expected, only what is inspected.
(See “What you measure is what you get” at
http://chiron.valdosta.edu/whuitt/papers/wymiwyg.html)
A key step in this procedure is writing effective learning outcomes. A comprehensive or “operational” student learning outcome often includes at least three elements:
A. Behavior: A description of the behavior or actions that will demonstrate learning has occurred. (Use action verbs from the appropriate level of Bloom’s taxonomy.) Examples:
- Define the terms…
- Identify the concept that explains…
- List the steps in the process of…
- Compare and contrast the two ideas…
- Compute the correct…
- Explain the central argument of…
- Describe the difference between…
- Differentiate among …
- Construct a lesson plan…
- Design a computer network…
B. Conditions: A description of the conditions under which the behavior is demonstrated. This includes any tools or information the students will receive when they are asked to demonstrate what they’ve learned. Examples:
- Given ten drawings of geometric figures…
- Given a paragraph…
- Given data for the first two variables…
- Given an illustration of the concept…
C. Standard: A description of the standard or criteria that will be used to evaluate success, that is, how well the learner must perform for you to say he or she has achieved the outcome. Examples:
- All of the…
- At least 80% of…
- In the correct order…
- The correct answer…
- That reflects the principles of…
See if you can identify the three elements in each of these sample learning outcome statements:
Learning Outcome Statement 1: Given a list of 10 proposed hypotheses, correctly classify at least eight as either “testable” or “not testable” according to accepted scientific method.
a. Behavior: Classify “testable” and “not testable” hypotheses (Bloom Level 2, comprehension)
b. Condition: Given a list of 10 proposed hypotheses
c. Standard: Correctly classify 8 of the 10
Learning Outcome Statement 2: Given a sample Web page, correctly recode all instances of text formatting using the font element to use appropriate inline styles, via the style attribute.
a. Behavior: Recode text formatting using the font element to use appropriate inline styles (Bloom Level 3, application)
b. Condition: Given a sample Web page
c. Standard: 100% (“all instances”)
Learning Outcome Statement 3: Revise a general instructional goal to ensure it includes all three elements required of an “operational” learning outcome.
a. Behavior: Revise a learning goal to make it operational (Bloom Level 5, Synthesis)
b. Condition: Given a general instructional goal
c. Standard: An “operational” learning outcome that includes all three of the critical elements
Writing learning outcomes is as much art as science, but these guidelines will help:
- Collaborate with other faculty in your discipline; identify what you believe are the most important outcomes for students to achieve.
- Be student-centered and learning-centered: Focus on what students will learn, rather than what content you will “cover.”
- A good learning outcome should state what the students are expected to do after successfully completing the course or lesson. Outcomes are about observable and measurable performance. It is impossible for instructors to step into the minds of their students and detect how much has actually been learned. Instead, they must gather indirect evidence that learning has occurred through the use of assessment tools that will elicit observable and measurable behaviors.
- Avoid verbs that can’t be measured, like “know,” “understand,” or “appreciate” because they don’t relate to specific student behaviors that can be observed.
- Use verbs that relate to the level of learning you want students to achieve in Bloom’s taxonomy. One might be “define” (level 1). But, if you want students to reach level 4 in the taxonomy, you’ll also need to write outcomes using verbs like “explain” (level 2) “use” (level 3) and “examine” (level 4).
For more on Bloom’s Taxonomy, go to:
http://tip.psychology.org/taxonomy.html
http://www.officeport.com/edu/blooms.htm
http://www.coun.uvic.ca/learn/program/hndouts/bloom.html
http://chiron.valdosta.edu/whuitt/col/cogsys/bloom.html
For more on Bloom’s Taxonomy and writing outcomes as they relate to higher-
order and critical thinking:
http://chiron.valdosta.edu/whuitt/papers/wymiwyg.html
For more on student learning outcomes, go to:
http://css.rpgroup.org/
http://www.msjc.edu/accreditation/steering04/docs/committee/bscroggins.doc
http://vcs.ccc.cccd.edu/senate/curriculum/verbs.htm
For more on writing learning objectives, go to:
http://www.cvc3.org/Telelearning2001web/LessonIntro.htm#Objectives
http://edtech.tennessee.edu/~bobannon/objectives.html
http://chiron.valdosta.edu/whuitt/col/plan/behobj.html
http://www.adprima.com/objectives.htm
http://www.utmem.edu/grad/MISCELLANEOUS/Learning_Objectives.pdf
http://captain.park.edu/facultydevelopment/writing_learning_objectives.htm
http://www.ceph.org/LearningObj.f00.PDF
http://www.edci.purdue.edu/vanfossen/InstructionalObjectives.html
http://www.provost.cmich.edu/assessment/toolkit/writingoutcomes.htm
http://instructionaldesign.gordoncomputer.com/Objectives.html
http://www.ksu.edu/apr/Learning/HowTo.htm
http://tip.psychology.org/mager.html