Learning outcomes taken to the extreme: what not to hope for in HE
I came across this blog piece the other day: ‘Objectives versus outcomes’. I want to comment on it here because I think it reinforces, unintentionally, some of the concerns and worries that some scholars have concerning learning outcomes. I should state right off that the blog piece is not connected with an educational institution. Instead, it has […]
Making learning outcomes work for social responsibility and not neoliberalism
Last week I read a really interesting piece by Henry Giroux called ‘Defending higher education in the age of neoliberal savagery’. In this piece Giroux makes some key critical comments: – As market mentalities and moralities tighten their grip on all aspects of society, democratic institutions and public spheres are being downsized, if […]
Neoliberal (economically) focused HE: why it reinforces performative learning outcomes
In a tweet last week I asked whether we should be focused on ‘learning outcomes’ or ‘outcomes for learners’. This was after I had read an interesting paper by William Buhrman (2011) who argued that ‘learning outcomes’ should be reframed as ‘outcomes for learners’. This latter phrasing, he suggested, goes beyond ‘what we want students to know about’ […]
Can learning outcomes support the broader purposes of higher education?
I was asked the question the other day: ‘Do you think it would be possible for a Medical course to have just one learning outcome?’ Interesting. What would this learning outcome be? ‘By the end of this course you (the student) will be a caring, compassionate, competent and safe doctor’. This question came from a […]
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