Unit 6 – Writing Aims and Learning Outcomes
and Planning an Inter-professional Learning
Session
Aim
• To provide participants with the knowledge and skills
required for planning and delivering an effective interprofessional learning session.
Learning outcomes
• Apply the principles of adult learning theory to
facilitate learning in the workplace
• Design a set of robust aims and learning outcomes
• Plan an inter-professional learning session that
promotes an effective learning environment
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Adult Education
The purpose of adult education
is to help them learn, not to
teach them all they know and
stop them from carrying on
learning
(Rogers 2002)
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Optimise Learning: Principles of
Constructive Alignment
• Learners construct their learning: meaning is not imposed
or transmitted by direct instruction; it is created by the
students' learning activities and their approaches to
learning.
• Teaching and assessment must be aligned with learning
outcomes
• When there is alignment between what we want, how we
teach and how we assess, teaching is likely to be much
more effective than when it is not.
Biggs, 2003)
(
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Principles of constructive alignment
Learning Outcomes
Teaching and Learning Activities
Assessment
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Process of Constructive Alignment
Decide on:
•
•
•
•
•
Aim
Intended learning outcomes
Content
Teaching and Learning activities
Assessment and evaluation
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Course design
•
•
•
•
•
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Who are our learners?
What do we want our learners to achieve?
What are the aims and learning outcomes
What learning opportunities will be provided?
How will learning be assessed?
How will we evaluate it?
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Who are our learners?
• Background
• Previous knowledge
• Stage in learning or career
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What do we want our learners to
achieve?
• Setting appropriate aims and learning
outcomes is the most crucial task
designing an educational programme
• Everything else depends on this
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What is the Aim?
To give an overall purpose or educational
intent
‘The aim of this course is to provide
participants with the knowledge and skills
required for planning and delivering an
effective inter-professional learning
session’
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Developing Learning Outcomes
Don’t forget to :
• Identify the end point of the learning session
• Identify your assumptions about what can be
achieved during that process
• Limit the number of outcomes to those which
are key
• Make sure they are learner focused
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What is expected of the learner ?
•
Use an unambiguous action VERB - needs to be measurable
design
•
Add the OBJECT of the verb
a set of aims and learning outcomes
•
If appropriate , add CONTEXT or CONDITION
robust
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Learning outcome example
• Design a set of robust aims and learning
outcomes
• Write a sonnet in the style of William
Shakespeare
• Apply theories of adult learning effectively
in practice
• Fry an egg for your breakfast, that has the
white completely set and the yolk
completely runny
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SMART Outcomes
Effective learning outcomes should be S.M.A.R.T:
• S - Specific, significant, stretching
• M - Measurable, meaningful, motivational
• A – Achievable, agreed upon, attainable,
acceptable, action-oriented
• R - Realistic, relevant, reasonable, rewarding,
results-oriented
• T - Timely, time-based, tangible, trackable
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Blooms Taxonomy of Educational Objectives
(1956)
Bloom suggested that learning tended to fall into 3 domains:
•
Cognitive domain – relating to intellectual capability i.e. knowledge or
‘think’
•
Affective domain – relating to feelings, attitudes, values and
behaviours
•
Psychomotor domain – relating to physical coordination and
performance of physical skills
•
http://www.learningandteaching.info/learning/bloomtax.htm
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Bloom’s Taxonomy (1956)
http://www.learningandteaching.info/learning/bloomtax.htm
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Group Activity 1
• Think of an educational programme you are
currently involved in delivering
• Write one learning outcome using the
template provided
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What learning opportunities
will be provided ?
Learning activities:
• select and design those that enable
achievement of expected outcomes.
Remember:
• learning styles
• adult learning theories
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How will learning be assessed?
• Align the learning outcomes to the assessment.
• Match the form of assessment (formative or
summative) to what is being learned e g essay, quiz,
project practical skill
• Assessment must be valid and reliable – measure
what it’s supposed to measuring and be consistent
• Evaluation - have the students learned what the
learning outcomes state they should be learning?
(Biggs 2003)
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Group Activity 2
• Design and plan an inter-professional learning session
• Think about criteria you need to consider when planning a
learning session e.g. learner profile and venue
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Group Activity 2 continued
Write the aim
and develop
the learning
outcomes
VERB
OBJECT
CONTEXT/
CONDITION
WRITE
SONNET
STYLE OF
WILLIAM
SHAKESPE
ARE
FRY
EGG
SET WHITE
AND
RUNNY
YOLK
ACTIVITY
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Summary
• Tell me, and I will forget. Show me, and I may
remember. Involve me, and I will understand.
Confucius (approx 450 BC)
• Learning takes place through the active
behaviour of the student: it is what he does that
he learns, not what the teacher does. Tyler (1949)
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