5.8 | Writing Student Learning Objectives

Four Steps in Writing SLOs

When you think about Bloom's Taxonomy, you do not always need to begin with the lower order skills, it really depends on the level of the learners in your course. Fortunately, there are "verb tables" and outcome/objective builders that will help you identify which action verbs will align with each level in Bloom's Taxonomy. Review the following steps for writing SLOs and then check out the verb table that follows. This will help you understand the relationship between Bloom's Taxonomy and developing clear and measurable Student Learning Objectives. 

  • Step 1 - Identify the noun or thing you want students to learn
    • Example: the process of writing effective learning objectives and creating alignment with assessments and activities

  • Step 2 - Identify the level of knowledge using Bloom's Taxonomy (remember, understand, apply, analyze, evaluate, create). It is important to choose the appropriate level of learning. This directly influences the type of assessment you will use to measure your students' learning
    • Example: to design and evaluate the writing objectives and alignment process (evaluation level)

  • Step 3 - Select a verb that is observable to describe the behavior at the appropriate level of learning (Bloom's verb chart)
    • Example: Evaluate the process

  • Step 4 - Add additional criteria to indicate how or when the objective will be observable to add context for the student
    • Example: Evaluate the process of writing learning objectives and aligning them with assessments and activities

 

As you follow these steps remember that you do not have to use stiff or formal language - in fact, it may be most authentic if the language is tailored to your students. Learners want to know why they are learning something, and they want to know how the knowledge or skill applies to their lives. Students will feel more engaged when instructors make the effort to explain the why and how to them. 

Bloom's Verb Table
Bloom's Level Key Verbs Example Learning Objective
Create design, formulate, build, invent, create, compose, generate, derive, modify, develop. By the end of this lesson, the student will be able to design an original homework problem dealing with the principle of conservation of energy. 
Evaluate choose, support, relate, determine, defend, judge, grade, compare, contrast, argue, justify, support, convince, select, evaluate. By the end of this lesson, the student will be able to determine whether using conservation of energy or conservation of momentum would be more appropriate for solving a dynamics problem. 
Analyze

classify, categorize, analyze, diagram, illustrate, criticize, simplify, associate. 

 

 By the end of this lesson, the student will be able to differentiate between potential and kinetic energy. 
Apply

calculate, predict, apply, solve, illustrate, use, demonstrate, determine, model, perform, present. 

 

 By the end of this lesson, the student will be able to calculate the kinetic energy of a projectile. 
Understand

describe, explain, paraphrase, restate, provide examples of, summarize, contrast, interpret, discuss.

 

 By the end of this lesson, the student will be able to describe Newton's three laws of motion in their own words.
Remember list, recite, outline, define, name, match, quote, recall, identify, label, recognize.

By the end of this lesson, the student will be able to recite Newton's three laws of motion. 

 

 

A Great Resource: The Learning Objectives Builder!

If you don't have a ton of practice with this process you will want all of the tools you can get your hands on! The Arizona State University Online Learning Toolkit contains an Online Objectives Builder tool to help instructors write measurable course outcomes and learning objectives. It is a user-friendly tool that prompts you to select a cognitive domain that is appropriate for your course or assessment, choose a verb, and describe what you want students to do. The tool will then populate your objective for you as you progress through the steps. Incredible! 

ASU Learning Objectives Builder Links to an external site.

Next Steps

Using Backward Design and Bloom's Taxonomy will help you to develop clear and measurable objectives that are in alignment with course activities. Once students complete the various course activities, as stated at the beginning of this module, one of the most important steps toward authentic assessment is creating equitable rubrics that consistently and fairly assess students' acquisition of skills. Rubrics can assist with developing criteria that is clear and transparent for the student, as well as promote objective grading and efficiency in the grading process. 

Works Cited

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