promoting high-quality learning through outcomes-based approaches

Promoting High-Quality

Learningthrough

Outcomes-based Approaches

Guidelines from

Research and Good Practice

Prof Tom Angelo

Pro Vice Chancellor (Curriculum & Academic Programs)Director—Curriculum, Teaching & Learning Centre

Professor of Higher Education

La Trobe UniversityMelbourne, Australia

My sincere thanks to our gracious hosts –

and to my wise colleagues

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And to all of you who planned, organized, and

are running this Symposium

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Outcome-Based Approaches(OBAs)

Ends? or

Means?

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OBAs are Means

High-Quality Deep Learning

is the End

Directed Paraphrasing Exercise

In 1 or 2 concise sentences, define/describe what high-quality or deep learning means to you.

High-Quality/Deep Learning is . . . ______________________________________________________________

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Given that Outcome-Based Approaches are more than 25 years old . . .

Why haven’t OBAs made more demonstrable postive impact on student learning quality?

1. Lack of leadership?2. Lack of followership?3. Poor implementation?4. Weak follow through?5. Flawed design . . . Or no design?6. Lack of a systems approach? 7. Weak foundation in learning research?

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Which single factor most hinders your OBA learning improvement efforts?

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Choose only one factor, please.1. Lack of leadership?2. Lack of followership?3. Poor implementation?4. Weak follow through?5. Flawed design . . . Or no design?6. Lack of a systems approach ?7. Weak foundation in learning research?8. Another factor: _______________?

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If this were easy . . .

We would not all be here today

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Raise your hand, please, if you are familiar with . . .

The ancient Greek Myth of Sisyphus

Do you sometimes feel like Sisyphus?

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Or more like Assess-yphus?

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Do you ever feel that your OBA efforts are undervalued?

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Do you worry what might happen if you stop pushing the outcomes agenda?

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If you answered “Yes” to any of those questions, don’t despair.

You are in very good company.

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Don’t panic!

It may not be easy, but it is possible— as many of you have demonstrated.

7 Research-based Guidelines for Promoting High-Quality Learning through OBAs

1. Build shared trust2. Build shared language and concepts3. Build shared motivation4. Design backward and plan forward5. Think and act systematically6. Take a scholarly, research-based approach7. Don’t assume: Ask, assess, evaluate, research

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1. Build Shared Trust . . . • Improvement requires learning• Learning requires change• Change requires risk taking• Risk taking requires trust• What have you done or can you do

to build and enhance trust among teaching staff and students?

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Under stress,we regress.

2. Build Shared Language . . .

Directed Paraphrasing Exercise

In 1 or 2 concise sentences, define/describe what high-quality or deep learning means to you.

High-Quality/Deep Learning is . . . ________________________________________________________________________

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2. Build Shared Concepts

Five Key Concepts•Learning Outcomes•Backward Design•Constructive Alignment•Triangulation•Gap Analysis

3. Build Shared Motivation . . .

What are your . . . • Learning Goals for this Symposium?• Professional/Career-related Goals?• Personal/Social Goals?

What have you done or can you do to improve the odds of achieving these?

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Motivation, while necessary, is not sufficient to ensure deep, high-quality learning.

We need more . . .

To learn MORE and more deeply requires•Motivation•Organisation•Rehearsal and•Elaboration

“It’s not what we do, but what students do that’s the important thing.”

Biggs, J. & Tang, C. (2007). Teaching for Quality Learning at University, 3rd Edition.Berkshire: McGraw-Hill, p. 19.

4. Design backward, Plan forward

Five Dimensions of Higher Learning

% Then? % Now?____ Declarative Learning _________ Procedural Learning _________ Conditional Learning _________ Reflective Learning _________ Metacognitive Learning _____

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7 Criteria for Curriculum DesignConstructively Aligned Conceptually FocusedClearly StructuredContextualisedCurrent Cost EffectiveConsequential

“You can’t fix by analysis what you bungled by design.”

Light, R., Singer, J. & Willett, J. (1990). By Design. Cambridge, MA: Harvard U. Press.

5. Think and act systematically

If the ways we assess and evaluate demonstrate our values

Then what values do our teaching and course evaluations systems demonstrate?

And what values do our marking and grading systems demonstrate?

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“From the students’ point of view,

the assessment is the curriculum.”

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Here’s a question about our assessment –testing, marking, andgrading – practices . . . .

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Can you fatten a pig just by weighing it?

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First-Year Piglets

Assessment [a pig scale]

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First-Year Experience

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More Assessment

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Desired Outcomes?

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Fattening a pig only requires quantitative (additive) change.

But improving learning outcomesrequires more complex qualitative (transformative) change.

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6. Take a research-based approach

What Matters Most in Your Students’ Learning and Success?

What do you suspect?What do you know?What have you done/can you do with that information?

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TO USE FEEDBACK WELL, LEARNERS NEED M.O.M.

• MOTIVATION – COMPELLING REASONS TO USE IT

• OPPORTUNITIES – FOR SAFE, GUIDED PRACTICE

• MEANS – KNOWLEDGE & SKILLS FOR IMPROVEMENT

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THE ORDER IN WHICH WE GIVE FEEDBACK MATTERS

CONSIDER THE FOLLOWING FIVE STEPS:

1ST - GOOD NEWS: WHAT WAS DONE WELL

2ND - BAD NEWS: WHAT STILL NEEDS IMPROVEMENT

3RD - OPTIONS: WHAT CAN BE DONE TO IMPROVE IT

4TH - PLANS: WHAT THE LEARNER INTENDS TO DO

5TH - COMMITMENTS: WHAT BOTH PARTIES AGREE TO DO, HOW, TO WHAT STANDARD, AND BY WHEN

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Critical Thinking appears to . . .

• Require a great deal of time and effort

• Cause discomfort and unhappiness

• Generate conflicts and tension

• Pose risks to relationships

• Be relatively easy to avoid

• Be strikingly rare in everyday life

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Impeding Critical Thinking Approaches Contraindicated by Research

• Focus on rote learning• Information/work overload• One-shot assignments/assessments• Norm-referenced (curved) marking• Assessment fatigue• Incoherent curricula

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Developing Critical Thinking Factors Well-Supported by Research

• Engagement in an interdisciplinary, integrated, coherent curriculum

• Mastery of an inquiry/research method • Authentic problem-solving• Structured collaborative work• Standards-based assessment and feedback• Positive experiences of diversity• High levels of engagement and effort

7. Don’t assume: Ask, assess, evaluate

The Minute Paper

1) What were the 2-3 most useful or meaningful things you learned?

2) What “burning questions” remain?

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Applications Card

Ideas/Techniques Possible Applications?

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An addendum to Biggs & Tang

OWe learn most deeply not by thinking or doing,

but by thinking about what we are doing.

What learners do and think matters most.

Teachers can positively influence what learners do, think, and learn.

But the curriculum, as a whole, can have a much greater, more lasting influence on learning.

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Where Are We Now?

OJust what have we accomplished in the past 25 or so years?

“If you want to truly understand something, try to change it.”Kurt Lewin

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In the past 25 or so years . . . .

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We have learned more about what affects learning and, as a result, developed more effective:

•Teaching approaches•Assessment and feedback methods•Academic/Educational development programs

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What might be a way forward for Hong Kong?

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The Present & Future Challenge

OHow can we use OBAs to better promote high-quality, deep learning?

To move forward, we will need to develop:

•Meaningful, measurable outcomes•Shared, transparent standards for learning•Effective and efficient assessment•Effective and efficient feedback for learning•Effective and efficient curriculum designs

“You can’t fix by analysis what you bungled by design.”

Light, R., Singer, J. & Willett, J. (1990). By Design. Cambridge, MA: Harvard U. Press.

A Few Key References

Biggs, J. & Tang, C. (2007). Teaching for Quality Learning at University, (3rd Ed.). Berkshire, England: SRHE/Open University Press.

Bransford, J.D., Brown, A.L, & Cocking, R.R. (Eds.). (1999). How People Learn: Brain, Mind, Experience,and School. Washington, DC: National Academy Press.

Halpern, D.F. (2003). Thought and Knowledge: An Introduction to Critical Thinking (4th ed.) Malwah, NJ: Lawrence Erlbaum.

Hattie, J. & Temperley, H. (2007). The Power of Feedback. Review of Educational Research, 77(1), 81-112.

Leung, T.P, Ko, E., Mah, P., Moore, P., Spinks, J., Sung, J., Tam, M. & Wong, D. (2005). Education Quality Work: The Hong Kong Experience. Hong Kong: The Editorial Committee.

Pascarella, E. & Terenzini, P. (2005). How College Affects Students: A Third Decade of Research. San Francisco, CA: Jossey-Bass.

Ramsden, P. (2003) Learning to Teach in Higher Education, (2nd Ed.). London, New York: RoutledgeFalmer.

Further questions, comments, critiques and suggestions?

T.Angelo@latrobe.edu.au

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