Research & Training Blog

by Alyssa Lawson, Ph.D.

 

Learning Objective 1: Define the term “learning objective”.

Learning Objective 2: Describe why including learning objectives, particularly lesson-level learning objectives, can benefit learners.

Learning Objective 3: Explain the research on using learning objectives to enhance learning for students.

We all likely have had experience with learning objectives in one way or another. As students, they are the things on the syllabus many of us ignore. As instructors, they are the things we write to make sure we know the broad goals of the class. For schools, they are how we ensure we are meeting the teaching requirements set by the state. For many, learning objectives are not something thought about beyond ensuring we are teaching what needs to be taught. But this doesn’t have to be the only use of learning objectives. In fact, research indicates that incorporating learning objectives into individual lessons can help direct attention to important information and benefit learning.

 

What Are Learning Objectives?

Learning objectives are statements of what a learner is expected to know, understand, and/or be able to demonstrate after a period of learning (Reed, 2012). There are two common levels of learning objectives, used for different purposes:

• The first, which most people have had experience with, are course-level objectives which explain, generally, what knowledge students should understand by the end of the entire course. These types of learning objectives can help instructors develop a cohesive class and build assessments.

• The second are lesson-level learning objectives—the focus of this article—which explain what knowledge students should understand by the end of a class period or lesson. These types of learning objectives are used to directly support students in their understanding of the information presented in class. The research on these types of learning objectives demonstrates that they help guide students’ attention towards relevant information (Duchastel, 1977; Duchastel & Brown, 1974) and enhance performance on tests (Britton et al., 1985; Kaplan & Rothkopf, 1974). The reason that learning objectives are thought to be effective is because they provide support in focusing learners’ attention on what is important within a lesson and direct attention away from information that may not be as relevant. This allows students to recognize and focus on the key parts of a lesson and enhance learning.

 

How and When to Present Learning Objectives to Students

Lesson-level learning objectives can be incorporated into a class in a couple ways, but what makes the most sense? In a recent study at Landmark College, this question was put to the test. Forty students participated in a research study investigating the use of learning objectives. Participants were asked to learn a lesson about eclipses, with learning objectives presented at the beginning of the lesson, with learning objectives presented throughout the lesson, or without any learning objectives. After a slight delay, learners were asked a series of questions to assess their knowledge gained from watching the lesson. Learners who had learning objectives presented at the beginning of the lesson had slightly higher learning outcomes compared to those who had learning objectives presented throughout the lesson or no learning objectives at all. Additionally, learners felt more motivated to learn when the learning objectives were presented at the beginning of a lesson compared to the other two conditions. This leads us to believe that having learning objectives presented at the beginning of a lesson may be helpful in boosting students’ motivation to learn and their learning of the content.

 

What Do Students Have to Say About Learning Objectives?  

In the same study, we asked the learners who had learning objectives presented at any point during the lesson about their experience with these objectives. Across both types of presentations, learners had generally positive things to say about the learning objectives. When asked about how students felt about how learning objectives impacted their ability to pay attention to the lesson, almost half of the participants had positive responses (47%), about a quarter had neutral responses (27%) and about a quarter had negative responses (26%).

Several themes came up regarding the positive aspects of the learning objectives. Learners reported that the learning objectives (1) helped them know what to focus on during the lesson, (2) increased their focus on the lesson, and (3) helped them write better notes. These responses demonstrate that learners felt as though they were able to attend to the important information within the lesson when they were given the learning objectives.

However, learners also reported a need for improvement in learning objectives.  Comments included that learning objectives (1) needed to be more specific, (2) needed to be more broad, and (3) needed to be split into parts. As there were some conflicting themes on how to improve the learning objectives, this may suggest that students may have different preferences in how they like learning objectives to be presented to them.

Additionally, an interesting theme came up in some of the responses regarding aspects that could be improved when the learning objectives were presented throughout the lesson. These learners felt as though it would have been more helpful if the learning objectives were presented at the beginning of the lesson rather than throughout the lesson. This matches up with the findings that having learning objectives presented at the start of a lesson seemed to help students learn better than having learning objectives presented throughout the lesson.

 

So now what?

Although the research in this area is still being investigated and is somewhat mixed in terms of students’ perception of the impact, it shows that there are merits of presenting learning objectives to students to help guide their attention during learning. From this research, it seems that having learning objectives, particularly those presented at the beginning of a lesson, can help students learn. Furthermore, it seems as though many students are able to recognize the usefulness of incorporating learning objectives into a lesson, despite having slight differences in how they prefer the format of the learning objectives.

So, what does this mean for your classroom?

• It might be helpful to include learning objectives at the beginning of your lessons to help guide attention to important parts of a lesson. Doing so could have a positive impact on students’ learning, particularly for students who need additional support in directing their attention towards relevant parts of the lesson.

• It might also be useful to give students information about why you are presenting learning objectives to them in the first place; if they have a better understanding of why the statements are there, they may be more likely to use them.

• Lastly, it would likely be helpful to ask for and listen to the feedback from your students about the way the learning objectives are written. Allowing students to help you determine what ways they like seeing the learning objectives in your lesson may make students more willing and excited to use this tool to enhance their learning.

 

If you have any questions about the study presented in this article or want to conduct your own research on learning objectives in the classroom but don’t know where to start, feel free to reach out to Dr. Alyssa Lawson, a Research Associate in the Landmark College Institute for Research and Training (alyssalawson@landmark.edu).

 

References

 

Britton, B. K., Glynn, S. M., Muth, K. D., & Penland, M. J. (1985). Instructional objectives in text: Managing the reader’s attention. Journal of Reading Behavior, 17(2), 101-113. https://doi.org/10.1080/10862968509547533

Duchastel, P. (1977). Functions of instructional objectives: Organization and direction. [Research report]. http://files.eric.ed.gov/fulltext/ED135774.pdf

Duchastel, P. C., & Brown, B. R. (1974). Incidental and relevant learning with instructional objectives. Journal of Educational Psychology, 66(4), 481-485. https://doi.org/10.1037/h0036743

Kaplan, R., & Rothkopf, E. Z. (1974). Instructional objectives as directions to learners: Effect of passage length and amount of objective-relevant content. Journal of Educational Psychology, 66(3), 448-456. https://doi.org/10.1037/h0036506

Reed, D. K. (2012). Clearly communicating the learning objective matters! Middle School Journal, 43(5), 16-24. https://doi.org/10.1080/00940771.2012.11461825