"If one does not know to which port one is sailing, no wind is favourable." Seneca

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WHY

 

Hattie's effect sizes has lesson objectives as the highest immediately implementable factor on student outcomes. This is a place to bring lesson clarity to students and teaching. The purpose of learning sits at the heart of any engagement; by signposting to students what they are learning, teachers are laying the foundations for them to understand.

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WHAT

 

A learning objective should describes what students should know or be able to do by the end of a course. 

 

1. The objectives should be clear to students. They all should know what they are learning, and why they are learning it. They also need to see how the objectives fit to the bigger picture; that is, how they relate to the last lesson's learning, the course they are following, and the big overall goal.

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2. The objectives and outcomes must be differentiated for the individual student. All the learners should be able to see where they are, and what they need to do to get to the next level.

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3. Success criteria for getting to the objectives need to be negotiated with the students for optimum engagement to enable it to be clear to them what that progress will look like.

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HOW

 

Focus on the verb. What do you want your students to DO. To meet the objective, students

understand, relate, compare, explain, display, show, recount .....

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Double check:

? - Does the learning objective reflect a step in achieving an overall aim?

? - Do your lesson activities ensure that students will achieve their objective and your overall aim?

? - Is the learning objective measurable?

? - Is the learning objective student-centred?

? - Have you used effective, action verb/s that targets the desired output or understanding?

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LINKS: 

http://batchwood.herts.sch.uk/files/Learning-Objectives.pdf 

https://www.edglossary.org/learning-objectives/

https://www.bu.edu/cme/forms/RSS_forms/tips_for_writing_objectives.pdf