Teaching: Wording your learning outcomes
In your foundation years you are most likely
to be teaching your learners knowledge (e.g. the evidence base on a particular
topic, how to apply guidelines to an individual patient) or a skill (e.g. how
to conduct a literature search, how to prepare TPN). Sometimes learners may
need some background knowledge prior to learning a skill and so the learning
outcomes may need to address both these domains.
The following tables aim to help get you
started with using the right verbs in your learning outcomes according to what
you are teaching (knowledge, skills or attitudes) and the depth of
understanding required by your learner. The tables are organised with the
simplest concepts at the top (e.g. remembering
a fact), becoming more complex as you move down (e.g. being able to apply that fact to make a clinical
decision about a patient).
Try to avoid ambiguous phrases such as ‘be
aware of’ or ‘appreciate’ or ‘understand’ in learning outcomes as these are
difficult to measure.
Knowledge domain
Remember (e.g. facts, theories, principles)
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Recall, record, list, define, repeat, name,
outline, state, present, match, order, recount, reproduce, replicate
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Understand (i.e. the ability to interpret knowledge)
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Discuss, clarify, recognise, review, explain,
express, describe, report, interpret
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Apply (i.e. being able to apply prior knowledge to a
new situation)
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Demonstrate, illustrate, perform, interpret,
apply, employ, use, practice, prepare, modify, predict, extrapolate, manage,
solve, choose
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Analyse (e.g. breaking
down ideas into constituent parts and showing how they relate to each other)
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Distinguish, differentiate, calculate, compare,
contrast, categorise, appraise, relate, solve, examine, outline, investigate,
analyse, inspect, test, debate, question, criticise
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Evaluate (e.g. being able to judge the quality of data, construct an argument)
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Evaluate, assess, justify, appraise, argue,
decide, criticise, defend, judge, predict, value, score, measure
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Create (e.g. generation of new knowledge, original
work)
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Make, propose, design, hypothesise, construct,
invent, generate, synthesise, formulate, plan, compose, develop, manage,
create, modify.
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Skills domain
Imitation (observes skill and tries to
reproduce it)
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Copy, follow, mimic, repeat, replicate, reproduce
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Manipulation
(performs skill from instruction)
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Act, build, execute, perform
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Precision (reproduces skill with accuracy and
proportion)
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Calibrate, demonstrate, master
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Articulation
(combines one or more skills in sequence with harmony and consistency)
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Adapt, construct, combine, create, modifies
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Naturalisation (completes skilful tasks
competently and automatically)
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Create, design, develop, invent, manage
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Attitudes domain
Receive (e.g. willingness to listen, being aware of the existence of certain
ideas, directing attention to such ideas)
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Accept, ask, attend, choose, describe,
develop, follow, give, name, point to, recognise, select, reply, use
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Respond (e.g. willingness or satisfaction in responding to certain ideas)
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Answer, assist, complete, discuss, help,
perform, read, recite, report, respond
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Value (e.g. attaches importance to certain ideas, willingness to be
identified with the value)
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Accept, complete, defend, describe,
explain, follow, initiate, justify, propose, share
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Organise (e.g. to compare and relate the value to those already held within, establish which
values dominate).
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Adhere, arrange, compare, defend, display,
explain, modify, order, prepare, relate
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Characterise (e.g. acts consistently in accordance with values they hold within)
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Act, display, influence, listen, perform,
practice, propose, question, revise, serve, solve, use
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