{"id":30,"date":"2014-02-28T10:30:08","date_gmt":"2014-02-28T10:30:08","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/staffblogs.le.ac.uk\/loproject\/?p=30"},"modified":"2025-02-26T13:24:00","modified_gmt":"2025-02-26T13:24:00","slug":"wholosfor","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/staffblogs.le.ac.uk\/loproject\/2014\/02\/28\/wholosfor\/","title":{"rendered":"Who are learning outcomes REALLY for?"},"content":{"rendered":"

\u00a0\"confused\"<\/a><\/p>\n

Some people, who see learning outcomes more as accountability tools, may shout \u2018MANAGERS<\/em>\u2019.\u00a0 Others, who espouse the student-centred notions of learning outcomes, will most probably shout \u2018STUDENTS<\/em>\u2019.\u00a0 The literature would certainly suggest that these are the two main audiences for learning outcomes.<\/span><\/span><\/p>\n

But, if we take the most educationally ideal answer, i.e. \u2018students\u2019, are they the ones who are actually using learning outcomes?\u00a0 Much of the literature, particularly the \u2018grey\u2019 online literature, is directed towards teachers and focuses extensively on aspects such as how to write learning outcomes, how to implement them within their own courses, modules, etc, and how to align them to assessment (good example from HEA<\/a>).\u00a0 Through our own research here at the University of Leicester we have heard many academics saying that they use learning outcomes to a large extent to help direct their thinking around module development and module planning.\u00a0 As I indicate, there is a lot of \u2018grey\u2019 information out there to help them do this (a google search for ‘writing learning outcomes’ yields over 14 million results!). <\/span><\/span><\/p>\n

But, given that learning outcomes are supposed to epitomise student-centred learning, where is the information or guidance for students about how to work with them effectively?\u00a0 Are we supposing that a learning outcome\u2019s work is done once a student has simply read it?\u00a0 Is that where its job for students ends?\u00a0 No.\u00a0 I would suggest that implicit within the learning outcomes movement is the idea that these outcomes should be used by students to help them judge for themselves the progress of their learning and the extent to which they feel they will achieve (or are on the road to achieving) the learning outcome at the end of the module (or particular learning experience).\u00a0 But I have yet to come across any guidance for students about how they actually work with their learning outcomes in this way (if you have then please<\/i> let me know).<\/span><\/span><\/p>\n

So I am starting to question the student-centred claims about learning outcomes.\u00a0 Yes, they are written from a students\u2019 perspective and they tell them what they should know\/be able to do at the end of their learning experience.\u00a0 But that seems to be where the focus on students ends.\u00a0 Could we argue then that learning outcomes, as they currently stand, are still primarily teacher-focused rather than learner-focused?\u00a0 Teachers write them (mostly) and use them to frame and plan their modules\/courses\/programmes, teaching activities and assessments.\u00a0 I\u2019m not sure then that simply phrasing learning outcomes from a student\u2019s perspective warrants their \u2018student-centred\u2019 claim.<\/span><\/span><\/p>\n

In our \u2018Learning Outcomes Project\u2019 at the University of Leicester we have been developing a resource that gives ideas to students about how they could use their learning outcomes to support their independent studying.\u00a0 We hope to share with readers some aspects of this resource in the near future.\u00a0 <\/span><\/span><\/p>\n

In the meantime, I\u2019d be very interested to hear how others are encouraging their students to work with their learning outcomes.\u00a0 Or rather I should say I\u2019d be interested to hear if this is in fact occurring anywhere at all (I\u2019m struggling to find evidence that it is!).\u00a0 Are teachers\/lecturers encouraging students to engage with their learning outcomes and if so how? \u00a0If not, why not?\u00a0 Is this encouragement misguided?\u00a0 Should it be given to students at all?\u00a0 Can learning outcomes be \u2018student-centred\u2019 without it?<\/span><\/span><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

\u00a0 Some people, who see learning outcomes more as accountability tools, may shout \u2018MANAGERS\u2019.\u00a0 Others, who espouse the student-centred notions of learning outcomes, will most probably shout \u2018STUDENTS\u2019.\u00a0 The literature would certainly suggest that these are the two main audiences for learning outcomes. But, if we take the most educationally ideal answer, i.e. \u2018students\u2019, are […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":147,"featured_media":33,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[3,6,2],"tags":[17,19,15],"class_list":["post-30","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-lodebates","category-losinhe","category-uolproject","tag-reflections-on-los","tag-student-experience","tag-writinglos"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/staffblogs.le.ac.uk\/loproject\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/30","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/staffblogs.le.ac.uk\/loproject\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/staffblogs.le.ac.uk\/loproject\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/staffblogs.le.ac.uk\/loproject\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/147"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/staffblogs.le.ac.uk\/loproject\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=30"}],"version-history":[{"count":4,"href":"https:\/\/staffblogs.le.ac.uk\/loproject\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/30\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":35,"href":"https:\/\/staffblogs.le.ac.uk\/loproject\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/30\/revisions\/35"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/staffblogs.le.ac.uk\/loproject\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/33"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/staffblogs.le.ac.uk\/loproject\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=30"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/staffblogs.le.ac.uk\/loproject\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=30"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/staffblogs.le.ac.uk\/loproject\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=30"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}