of–and philosophical orientation behind– the various terms. The strength of this paper is that it helped me understand the rationale connected to the use of the different words that I previously thought of as synonymous.<\/span><\/p>\nBelow are some key ideas that I now link to two terms which, until recently, I used interchangeably:<\/span><\/p>\n\u201c<\/span>Instructional Objectives<\/b>\u201d The word \u201cinstructional\u201d \u00a0emphasises that the achievement of prespecified objectives are a direct consequence of instruction that the student receives. (linked to the work of Mager)<\/span><\/p>\n\n- Mager proposes that educators not use words such as: understand, know, appreciate as these are \u201ctoo slippery\u201d (not measurable).<\/span>\n
\n- he suggests that instructional objectives should specify condition, criterion, and that word choice is very important <\/span><\/li>\n
- he recommends that complex tasks be broken into highly discrete and defined elements to create instructional objectives<\/span><\/li>\n
- brings the learner to forefront<\/span><\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<\/li>\n
- Emphasis here is on what can be measured quantitatively<\/span><\/li>\n
- (reflected the view of people trained in psychology)<\/span><\/li>\n<\/ul>\n
\u201c<\/span>Learning Outcomes<\/b>\u201d (linked largely to the work of Eisner, 1979): \u201care essentially what one ends up with, intended or not, after some form of engagement\u201d (Eisner, 1979, p. 103, Cited in Allan, 1996).<\/span><\/p>\n\n- What the student achieves, as opposed to what the instructor plans to teach<\/span><\/li>\n
- Broad overarching consequences of learning (as opposed to a preconceived specific goal).<\/span><\/li>\n
- May be:<\/span>\n
\n- Subject specific outcomes<\/b>. Similar to instructional objectives in that they relate to, or result from, the content that is taught. However, they are not expressed in the form of [discreet\/reductionist] instructional objective; they do not specify condition or performance in the way that instructional objectives do.<\/span><\/li>\n
- Generic academic outcomes<\/b>: encompass learning that occurs in an individual independent of direct teacher\/student interaction, and learning that is not directly related to the pre-specified subject-specific outcomes (Allan, 1996). Individualized and not fully predictable. Transferable. Transcend discrete subjects. (related to Eisner\u2019s notion of \u201cpersonal outcomes\u201d…but somewhat different).<\/span>\n
\n- Include: interpersonal skills, critical self-reflection, working independently, being information literate, synthesizing ideas etc<\/span><\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n
<\/p>\n
Reference:<\/span><\/p>\nAllan, J. (1996). Learning outcomes in higher education. <\/span>Studies in Higher Education<\/span><\/i> 21.1: 93-108.<\/span><\/p>\nNext on my list to read: <\/span><\/p>\nHarden, R. M. (2002). Learning outcomes and instructional objectives: is there a difference?. <\/span>Medical teacher<\/span><\/i>, <\/span>24<\/span><\/i>(2), 151-155.<\/span><\/p>\n <\/p>\n
Photo credit:\u00a0Julian K\u00fccklich\u00a0(Flickr, Creative Commons Licensed cc by-nc-nd 2.0<\/p>\n
<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
Until recently, I have used the terms \u201cinstructional objectives\u201d and \u201clearning outcomes\u201d interchangeably. \u00a0Though I was aware that some educators thought there was a difference between the two, I chose to side with those who said there was none. I could not, however, have backed up my choice with anything other than a vague \u201cI\u2019ve […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":792,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[60,1484100,573],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-1387","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-blog","category-educational-development","category-teaching"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/blogs.ubc.ca\/iiqbal\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1387","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/blogs.ubc.ca\/iiqbal\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/blogs.ubc.ca\/iiqbal\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.ubc.ca\/iiqbal\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/792"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.ubc.ca\/iiqbal\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=1387"}],"version-history":[{"count":5,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.ubc.ca\/iiqbal\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1387\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":1392,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.ubc.ca\/iiqbal\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1387\/revisions\/1392"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/blogs.ubc.ca\/iiqbal\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=1387"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.ubc.ca\/iiqbal\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=1387"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.ubc.ca\/iiqbal\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=1387"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}
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