Adjustment of Learning Objectives
Definition and Function
Learning objectives describe the attributes that learners have acquired after a successful learning experience (as noted by Mager 1972: 3). These attributes can include competencies, knowledge, or skills that students are expected to develop during a learning unit, a module, or within a degree program.
Why is it important to formulate learning objectives?
They support instructors in planning their teaching units.
- They assist instructors in designing assessments.
- By making learning objectives transparent to students, they can evaluate their learning progress, thereby supporting self-directed learning.
- Particularly in self-learning processes, students need concrete learning objectives and qualified feedback.
- A precise formulation of learning objectives enhances students' motivation and learning success and serves to capture and express cognitive competency levels.
Review of Learning Objectives
The question of how to best assess the established learning objectives constitutes an important and creative part of e-assessment.
"What should my students know?" This is often the first question used to compile the teaching materials and exam tasks. However, the question could also be phrased as: "What should my students be able to do or apply?" This already shows that learning objectives can represent different levels of cognition.
The latter questions can help to probe further, deeper learning objectives that also encompass the levels of application and analysis. Ideally, these questions are presented to colleagues who can review them both in content and technically. Specific guidance on question construction can be found in the corresponding chapter.
Cognitive Learning Objectives
When formulating learning objectives, it typically concerns the cognitive processes that students are expected to perform. Setting cognitive learning objectives can help you design questions based on the level of reflection that learners are supposed to achieve. However, in addition to cognitive learning objectives, there are also affective learning objectives, which encompass attitudes and values, as well as psychomotor learning objectives.
There are numerous taxonomies that describe learning objectives. One that is most commonly used is Bloom's Taxonomy (1976). It categorizes questions of difficulty into six cognitive taxonomy levels: Knowledge, Comprehension, Application, Analysis, Synthesis, and Evaluation. By assigning learning objectives to a taxonomy level, their complexity can be assessed.
In the following table, you will find the appropriate verbs for learning objectives that will help you achieve the respective taxonomy level:
| Learning Objective | Taxonomy Level |
|---|---|
| name, define | Knowledge |
| describe, explain | Understanding |
| calculate, apply | Application Goals |
| represent, categorize | Analysis |
| create, find | Synthesis |
| compare, argue | Evaluation |