Promoting High-Quality Learningthrough Outcomes-based Approaches:

Guidelines from Research and Good Practice

Professor Tom Angelo

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

Professor of Higher Education

La Trobe UniversityMelbourne, Australia

Speaker’s summary notes from an invited session in the

Symposium on Outcome-Based Approaches in Student Learning

Quality Education, Quality Outcomes: The Way Forward for Hong Kong

Sponsored by the Hong Kong University Grants Committee

18 June 2008

The Hong Kong Polytechnic University

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Outcome-Based Approaches(OBAs)

Should they be considered

Ends? or Means?

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I will suggest that OBAs are Means

and that

High-Quality, Deep Learning is the desired End

But we cannot effectively achieve that desired endUnless we can define/describe it. So, let’s try.

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 . . .

______________________________________________________________________________________Once you have finished your draft definition/description Compare notes with your neighbours for two minutes, looking for similarities and differences.

Angelo, T.A. & Cross, K.P. (1993). Classroom Assessment Techniques: A Handbook for College Teachers. San Francisco: Jossey-Bass.

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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 institution’s OBA student learning improvement efforts?

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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?

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

1. Build shared trust

2. Build shared language and concepts

3. Build shared motivation

4. Design backward and plan forward

5. Think and act systematically

6. Take a scholarly, research-based approach

7. 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 . . .

We can begin building shared language through approaches as simple as the exercise we did a few minutes ago.

Directed Paraphrasing ExerciseIn 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

There will likely be key concepts, as well as terms, that will need to be understood in common before we can move forward together on OBA work. For example:

Five Key Concepts

•Learning Outcomes•Backward Design•Constructive Alignment•Triangulation•Gap Analysis

3. Build Shared Motivation . . . Identifying shared goals can help us build shared motivation. We might begin by asking

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

More on M.O.R.E.

•Motivation = Shared goals and consequential incentives•Organisation = Contructive alignment and backward design•Rehearsal = Guided practice•Elaboration = Transfer and application

“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?

Can you help students learnmore and better

just by assessing them?

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American farmers have a saying:

You can’t fatten a pig just by weighing it.

Something similar probably applies to our students’ learning.

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Quantitative or Qualitative Change:Which are we trying to promote?

Fattening a pig only requires quantitative (additive) change –more of the same.

But improving learning outcomesrequires more complex qualitative (transformative) change –not just more, but also different.

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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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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

And we’ve learned most of this only as a result of our efforts to improve teaching and learning outcomes in order to improve the quality of student learning.

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

Kurt Lewin

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What might be a way forwardfor 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

A Few Key References

Angelo, T. A. & Cross, K. P. (1993). Classroom Assessment Techniques: A Handbook for College Teachers. San Francisco: Jossey-Bass.

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