ITS NOT WHAT YOU TEACH, ITS WHAT THEY LEARN

1
ITS NOT WHAT YOU TEACH, ITS WHAT THEY LEARN
2
Shifting the Focus from Teaching to Learning
Learning Objectives for OR Course Design

• Thomas A. Grossman
• Masagung School of Management
• University of San Francisco
• tagrossman_at_usfca.edu

3
How Do You Design Your Course?
4
Challenges You Face in Course Design
5
Course Design Approaches

• Bottom-Up
• Start with components
• Add/Subtract components until full
• Top-Down
• Educational Objectives What student success
  looks like. (Goals)
• Instructional Objectives Observable student
  performance. (Components of Goals)

6
Educational Objectives

• High level goals in general terms
• Think of this as the elevator story that
  captures the essence of your course
• Each written as student behavior topic
• Definition
• An intended outcome of instruction that has been
  stated in general enough terms to encompass a
  domain of student performance (Gronlund)
• Examples (Anderson et al)
• The ability to read a musical score
• The ability to interpret various types of social
  data

7
Todays Educational Objective

• Educational Objective of this session (which
  includes the homework)
• You will think about objectives when designing a
  course
• You will be able to use Learning Objectives as a
  tool for course design

8
What Are the Educational Objectives of Your
Course?

• Turn to your neighbor and discuss
• Generate 2-5 Educational Objectives that might be
  suitable for each of you

9
Instructional Objectives

• Intermediate level
• More specific than Educational Objectives
• More general than low-level outcomes
• In aggregate, Instructional Objectives define
  Educational Objectives
• Examples (with Educational Objective the ability
  to interpret various types of social data)
• Recognize different types of social data
• Perform appropriate analyses
• Articulate results in plain English

10
What are the Instructional Objectives of Your
Course?

• Turn to your neighbor and discuss
• Generate 3-6 Instructional Objectives that might
  be suitable for your Educational Objectives

11
Effective Instructional Objectives

• Student Focused
• What is to be learned
• Not Instructor Focused
• How it is to be taught
• Do not constrain your teaching options in your
  Objectives!

12
Effective Instructional Objectives

• Concentrate on
• the product of instruction
• not the process of instruction
• Example
• Product
• Applies basic principles to new situations
• Process
• Gains knowledge of basic principles

13
Verbs to Avoid (at least for now)

• Understand
• Key question for an instructor WHY do I want
  them to understand?
• Appreciate
• Increase
• Gain
• Acquire
• Develop
• Learn
• Realize

14
Verbs to Use

• Explain
• Create
• Determine
• Make
• Predict
• Describe
• (See Appendix for more)

15
Effective Instructional Objectives

• Too Narrow
• Lists of specific learning tasks students can do
  (learning outcomes)

• Ideal
• Descriptions of expected student performance at
  the end of instruction

Too Broad Statements of general goal
16
Towards Instructional Objectives for Your Course

• Individually
• Write down 3-6 Instructional Objectives that
  might be suitable for your Educational Objectives

17
In Theory

• The best instructional objectives
• connect to the final exam
• can be measured without ambiguity

18
Putting Learning Objectives to Work

• Course Design
• Class session planning
• Provide (lower level) Learning Objectives for
  each class session
• Assessment
• Assessment should evaluate the Learning
  Objectives
• If you assess anything that is not a Learning
  Objective, reflect on why
• Communication with students
• Start of Course
• Present the Learning Objectives to students
• Conclusion of Course
• Evaluate how well you achieved the Learning
  Objectives.
• Can have a dialogue with your students.

19
Benefits of Learning Objectives

• Clarity on purpose of course
• Alignment with goals of the program
• Better communication to students, colleagues,
  deans
• Eases process of removing beloved content
• Identifies content areas where new materials
  needed
• (Personally) More effective course
• Grateful students
• Multiple students use course content within a few
  months

20
Homework

• Write down the Learning Objectives of your
  course.
• List of Educational Objectives
• List of Instructional Objectives
• Challenge Dont anchor on what youre doing now.
  Instead, focus on what you want your students to
  be able to do.

21
A Final Thought

• Learning objectives
• Are a tool to make you a better teacher
• Are not an end in themselves
• The goal is effective learning
• Think hard about goals in terms of what students
  can actually do
• Think hard about the components needed to achieve
  those goals
• Dont agonize over structure

22
Appendix Verbs to Use (Claus, in Gronlund)

• Analyze, Apply, Appreciate, Comprehend, Compute,
  Create, Demonstrate, Evaluate, Interpret, Know,
  Listen, Locate, Perform, Recognize, Speak, Think,
  Translate, Understand, Use, Write

23
Appendix Caveats

• There is no standardized terminology
• There are no useful definitions
• Most of the action is K-12, where there are
  external standards. In higher ed, we set our own
  standards.
• Conceptually, there is a continuum of Objectives
  of increasing specificity.
• Objectives can be structured hierarchically
• Educational Objectives Statements of general
  goals
• Instructional Objectives Statements about
  observable student performance
• Class Session Objectives Statements about
  low-level learning outcomes
• Choose a hierarchy that works for you!

24
References

• N. E. Gronlund, How to Write and Use
  Instructional Objectives, MacMillan Publishing
  Company
• Simple, clearly written
• Good introduction
• Tendency to focus at the level of class sessions

25
References

• Anderson et al, A Taxonomy for Learning,
  Teaching, and Assessing A Revision of Blooms
  Taxonomy of Educational Objectives, Addison
  Wesley Longman
• Much information on a taxonomy of different
  cognitive processes Remember, Understand, Apply,
  Analyze, Evaluate, Create
• Useful for thinking about what you want your
  students to be able to do, and how to get them
  there.

26
References

• Judith S. Liebman, Omega Rho Plenary, Teaching
  for Learning Past Present and Future, INFORMS
  2003, Atlanta.
• Summary
• http//omegarho.informs.org/lectures/liebman.pdf
  
• Copy available from INFORM-ED,
• http//education.forum.informs.org
• Grossman, T.A. (2001), Causes of the Decline of
  the Business School Management Science Course,
  INFORMS Transactions on Education, Vol. 1, No. 2,
  http//ite.informs.org/Vol1No2/Grossman/