Learning Outcomes in Education

Edward Tsang 2013.03.08

Modern education treats teachers and students as machines. Unfortunately, they are not. Teaching to achieve learning outcomes may not be best for students. Learning outcomes can only be defined as guidelines, not as the only measurable outcomes that matter, as some believe. What should the learning outcomes of "good education" be anyway?

Learning outcomes, the fallacy

One of the biggest mistakes in education management today is to assume that learning outcome can be concretely defined. A factory needs quality control; to control quality, we need to define what goods we want to produce, some would say.

Learning is not factory work

Learning is unlike factory work, where if a machine runs for one hour, it will produce 4 million buttons; 10 hours would produce 40 million. Both teachers and students are human beings! If I say the same thing to two different students, they might learn different things. Each of them might partially understand my message. I have no way to guarantee that my message will be fully understood.

I can't predict the learning outcomes before I talk to my 6-year-old

Before I talked to my six-year-old son, I was in no position to define my learning outcomes. I wouldn't have known what my son could have learned during the conversation. In fact, defining my goal before talking to him might even be a bad idea. The best way to educate him was to interact with him, and teach him whatever he was ready to learn at the time. Forcing him to learn what I have in mind may be quite ineffective.

Shouldn't we define learning outcomes at all?

We must be able to say what students need to know after doing a course, some would argue. Everyone who has learned the times table must be able to work out what 3 times 7 is. Everyone who has learned programming must be able to make the computer print "hello sailor" on the screen.

Learning outcomes can only be vaguely defined in some subjects

Indeed, learning outcomes can be defined for some subjects. But that mainly applies to skills related or science subjects where results can be measured more easily. For more advanced subjects, learning outcomes can only be defined as guidelines. In fact, they must not be defined too rigidly. A teacher would be able to judge how much a student understands Shakespeare after taking her course, but she may not be able to write down concrete learning outcomes required to constitute to "understanding Shakespeare". Sometimes, it is easier to judge a student's achievement than to write down measurable learning outcomes!

What should the learning outcomes of a "good education" be?

Unfortunately, in some managers' eyes, learning outcomes are more than guidelines. They are the only things that matter. They become the only criteria used to measure success in a course. Perhaps those who believe in learning outcome could write down the learning outcomes of "good education"?

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