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Just as a story needs a point, training needs a clear aim.
Therefore, following the maxim -
'Begin with the end in mind'
a trainer needs to design training with a clear idea of what the student will achieve by the end.
(For that matter, a speaker should design a speech not just with what they intend to say, but with why they intend to say it.)
Depending on the nature of the training, the aim may be broad:
'By the end of the training, the student will demonstrate how to make a great cup of tea.'
This learning outcome assumes one of two things:
either,
the student is already advanced enough to know most of the individual steps to make a cup of tea,
or,
the steps themselves are not set, and as long as we end up with the perfect cup of tea, how we get there is not the real issue.
However, if we assume the student knows nothing about tea and has never been in a kitchen, then the outcomes would need to be broken down into a series of specific stages:
'The student will describe the steps necessary to fill a kettle and bring it to the boil.'
'The student will list the order in which ingredients go into the cup.''
Clearly, in the second set of outcomes, we assume the student has little relevant prior knowledge and needs to learn specific basic steps.
So how do we define a learning outcome?
On a simple level, a learning outcome for a training session is simply a 'what' and a 'how':
'What' will we be doing in the training? and
'How' will we know that we have achieved it?
The real key to creating a proper learning outcome comes down to one special word:
an appropriate active verb.
'active' suggests some form of 'doing' and
'appropriate' means that the verb is measurable in some way, so we can know whether we have achieved our goal.
Verbs like 'list', 'construct', and 'compare' are active and already suggest how the knowledge might be tested.
However, verbs like 'understand', 'believe ', or 'know', although active, are hard to measure.
How can I gauge 'understand'? How can I assess what you really 'believe' and the degree to which you will 'know' something?
Those of you with an Education background may have come across 'Bloom's taxonomy'.
It contains a useful list of active verbs, organised into categories, to help trainers create learning outcomes that indicate the intended level of learning.
For instance, if I am running a course in 'Using a computer' and my learning outcomes are all made of verbs like 'list', 'name', 'find', we can assume the level of knowledge required is fairly basic, whereas:
words like: 'compose', 'create', 'construct', require a deeper level of understanding and the ability to think for oneself.
A little exercise I run with students is to give them a brief outline of a training program and ask them to come up with three basic learning outcomes for beginners and three more involved outcomes for more advanced students.
What they always find is that basic-level outcomes are easy to establish and easy to test.
Advanced learning outcomes are often harder to define and describe, and therefore usually more time-consuming to assess.
(Hence the fact that so much of school assessment probably remains at such a basic level.)
Clear training always requires a clear set of learning outcomes. And the key to creating (note the high-level active verb there!) suitable learning outcomes is to first establish what level of learning the students need to achieve and then choose a verb to match
Vince Stevenson - Founder College of Public Speaking 2006 Ltd.
If you have a great attitude and look forward to making a difference in your life, I hope you consider joining one of our training the trainer courses or public speaking course soon. It's always possible to improve your skillset and take your work and achievements to a higher level. Three strong reasons to support training
