EDF 4430 > HIGHLIGHTS OF CHAPTER 2  

by Prof. Maria M. Sifre-McMann 

September 7, 2004

CHAPTER 2 HIGHLIGHTS

EDF 4430 - ESTABLISHING LEARNING TARGETS

Establishing clear, specific and valued learning targets is an essential step toward classroom assessment.

Learning targets:

What students should know and be able to do in the criteria for judging student performance.

Different from:  Educational goal

                 Objectives

• (Global objectives)

• (Instructional objectives)

Standards-Based Instruction

• Intent of standards is to clarify and raise expectations; provide a common set of expectations.

• Standards are higher levels of student achievement especially as contrasted with minimum competency.

Content standards

• Statements about what students should know, understand and be able to do; the knowledge and skills that students should attain.

Performance standards-

• Indicate the level of proficiency that must be demonstrated to indicate the degree to which content standards have been attained.

• Describe what students must do and how different levels of performance on the content standards result.

Criteria:

• Clearly articulated and public descriptions of facets or dimensions of student performance that are used for judging the level of achievement. i.e., coring criteria, rubrics, scoring rubrics, scoring guidelines.

• Exemplars or anchors are important examples that help students understand how teacher’s evaluations are made.

• The key component of criteria is making your professional judgments about student performance clear to others.

Clearly articulated criteria helps in many ways:

• Defining what is considered excellent, good, average, work,

• Communicating instructional goals to parents,

• Communicating what constitutes excellence,

• Providing guidelines for making unbiased and consistent judgments,

• Documenting how judgments are made

• Helping students evaluate their own work.

• It is necessary to summarize dimensions of performance that are used to assign student performance to a different level.

Expectations: 

• What you communicate to your student about the levels of performance that you think they will be able to demonstrate.

Learning Target:

• A statement of student performance that includes both a description of what students should know, understand and be able to do at the end of a unit of instruction, and as much as possible and feasible  about the criteria for judging level of performance demonstrated.

•  You must be able to articulate as part of the target, the criteria you will use to judge performance.  Students should know these criteria before instruction.

Types of Learning Targets:

1. Knowledge and Simple Understanding Learning Targets

2. Deep Understanding and Reasoning Learning Targets

3. Skill Learning Targets

4. Product Learning Targets

5. Affective Learning Targets

Sources of Learning Targets

1. Bloom’s Taxonomy of Objectives: 3 domains

2. Bloom’s Revised Taxonomy of Objectives: 2-dimensional model

3. Professional Preparation

4. Textbooks

5. Existing lists of Objectives (NCTM, NCTE, state & local level curriculum guides).

6. National & State standards

Criteria for Selecting Learning Targets

1. Right # of learning objectives

2. Comprehensive learning targets

3. Learning targets that reflect school goals

4. Learning targets that are challenging, yet feasible

5. Learning targets that are consistent with current principles  of learning and motivation