Writing learning outcomes

Guidance for staff on specifying learning outcomes for your units

Overview

When writing learning outcomes, consider what it is that your students should be able to do as a result of completing your unit (or session). How they would be able to demonstrate this to you?  In other words, how would you assess that learning had happened?

Consider the best verb to use. In order to assess something it must be observable, so avoid using verbs such as ‘know’ or ‘understand’. However, much learning is invisible, so think in terms of behaviours. Note that some verbs describe simple behaviour - for example, ‘describe’. Other verbs suggest more complex behaviour - for example, ‘compare’. ‘Comparing’ assumes being able to describe the things that are being compared. ‘Critiquing’ assumes being able to compare, and ‘creating’ can similarly encapsulate various other processes. The fact that more complex verbs encapsulate less complex verbs means that a relatively small number of learning outcomes is needed.

Bloom’s taxonomy of learning

  • Bloom’s taxonomy

    Bloom’s taxonomy (1956) is a framework that helps educators think about the learning we wish to engender in our students. The premise is that students build on former learning to achieve higher levels of understanding. Bloom’s original work has been usefully revised by Anderson and Krathwohl’s (2000). See figure 1 below.

    Please note it is not an exhaustive list but offers a useful guide.

    Level & Cognitive DomainExpectationAction verbs for learning outcome

    1:

    Remembering

    		Retrieving, recalling, or recognizing knowledge from memory. Remembering is when memory is used to produce definitions, facts, or lists, or recite or retrieve material.Define, describe, identify, label, list, match, name, outline, reproduce, select, state, recall, record, recognise, repeat, draw on, or recount.

    2:

    Understanding

    		The students shows understanding of something; showing they have grasped the meaning. Students could show understanding by translating what they learned in a book into actual practice or by interpreting what is known in one context when used in another context.Students demonstrate understanding if they are able to:
    Convert, defend, distinguish, estimate, explain, extend, generalise, give examples, infer, paraphrase, predict, rewrite, summarise, clarify, restate, locate, recognise, express, review, or discuss, locate, report, express, identify, describe how, infer, illustrate, interpret, draw, represent, differentiate.

    3:

    Applying

    		Carrying out or using a procedure through executing, or implementing. Applying related and refers to situations where learned material is used through products like models, presentations, interviews or simulations.Apply, change, compute, calculate, demonstrate, discover, manipulate, modify, operate, predict, prepare, produce, relate, show, solve, use, schedule, employ, sketch, intervene, practise, or illustrate.

    4:

    Analysing

    		Breaking material or concepts into parts, determining how the parts relate or interrelate to one another or to an overall structure or purpose. Mental actions included in this function are differentiating, organizing, and attributing, as well as being able to distinguish between the components or parts. When one is analysing he/she can illustrate this mental function by creating spreadsheets, surveys, charts, or diagrams, or graphic representations.Analyse, break down, make a diagram, classify, contrast, categorise, differentiate, discriminate, distinguish, appraise, test, inspect, illustrate, infer, outline, relate, select, survey, investigate, make an inventory, calculate, question, contrast, debate, compare, or criticise.

    5:

    Evaluating

    		Making judgments based on criteria and standards through checking and critiquing. Critiques, recommendations, and reports are some of the products that can be created to demonstrate the processes of evaluation.  In the newer taxonomy evaluation comes before creating as it is often a necessary part of the precursory behavior before creating something.

    Appraise, assess, argue, compare, conclude, contrast, criticise, discriminate, judge, evaluate, choose, rate, revise, select, estimate, measure, justify, interpret, relate, value, measure the extent, validate, summarise.

    6:

    Creating

    		Putting elements together to form a coherent or functional whole; reorganizing elements into a new pattern or structure through generating, planning, or producing. Creating requires users to put parts together in a new way or synthesize parts into something new and different a new form or product.  This process is the most difficult mental function in the new taxonomy.Compose, design, plan, assemble, prepare, construct, propose, formulate, set up, predict, deriver, elaborate, invent, develop, devise, rearrange, summarise, tell, revise, rewrite, write, modify, organise, produce, or synthesise.

    Figure 1. Adapted from Anderson & Krathwohl’s revision of Bloom, A taxonomy of learning, teaching and assessing (2000) 

  • Types of knowledge

    Bloom defined types of knowledge as follows:  

    • Factual knowledge – specific to  disciplines. Essential facts, terminology, details or elements students must be familiar with in order to e.g. solve a problem within a discipline. It is sometimes called ‘declarative’ knowledge, as these facts can be ‘stated’.
    • Conceptual knowledge - of classifications, principles, generalizations, theories, models, or structures pertinent to a particular disciplinary area.   
    • Procedural knowledge -  helps students to do something specific to a discipline, subject, area of study. It also refers to methods of inquiry, very specific or finite skills, algorithms, techniques, and particular methodologies. It includes e.g. being able communicate in a foreign language ‘without thinking’.
    • Metacognitive knowledge - the awareness of one’s own cognition and particular cognitive processes. It is strategic or reflective knowledge about how to go about solving problems, cognitive tasks, to include contextual and conditional knowledge and knowledge of self. Students use it to ‘learn how to learn’.

  • Context

    When you have decided what knowledge and skills your students should demonstrate, add the context in which students will demonstrate their learning and how well they must do so. Here are some examples of how to complete learning outcomes, building on the statements showing synthesis above.

    After the course, the student will be able to:

    • Prepare a 10 minute presentation on topic x suitable for a student seminar. The seminar should enable fellow students to tackle the questions relevant to the topic in the final exam.
    • Design a product from a brief using the materials listed in the brief and appropriate to xxx market. The product should be innovative in that it should be different from anything currently on the market.
    • Outline a patient education programme, using the resources provided to you, that will teach topic x to y number of people over z time.

Summary

Check that your learning outcomes have:

  • A verb to describe the behaviour which demonstrates the student’s learning.
  • An object (noun phrase) to describe what the behaviour relates to.
  • Clear information about the context.

You may find it useful to use the acronym borrowed from business: SMART. Here this stands for Specific, Measurable, Achievable, Realistic, Timed. Avoid vague or over-ambitious outcomes. 

And finally: Learning outcomes must include some higher levels of Bloom’s taxonomy. Claims for credit in Higher Education must include synthesis and analysis, evaluation and application of knowledge.

Learning outcomes contact

Dr Sophie Bessant

Senior Lecturer in Academic Development

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Learning Outcomes contact

If you have further questions about writing Learning Outcomes, please contact Dr Sophie Bessant. Click on the profile card for more details.