Outcome-Based Education:
Using Objectives for Classroom Instruction
by Anita Duhl Glicken, MSW

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Most often, the list of instructional objectives for any given class most often contains some objectives that are considered essential for all students to achieve. In the case of an extended educational program, the list also typically contains other objectives that document achievement of individual developmental milestones. These "anchors" provide a marker of student progress as they work toward general outcomes or competencies they may never fully achieve. For example, the ability to think critically about a clinical issue may require a long period of development and will continue to improve with increasing experience in clinical practice.

A common error is a failure to distinguish between minimum essentials and objectives that encourage maximum development. This distinction becomes important in planning for instruction. Focusing solely on essential objectives will drive an instructor to teach only specific simple learning outcomes. Focusing too much on developmental outcomes, often leads an instructor to neglect the knowledge and skills that are prerequisite to the higher learning. To steer clear of this dilemma, instructors should give attention to different levels of curricular or course objectives when they prepare their list of learning outcomes.

Identifying objectives that meet the higher performance levels as described in Tables 2, 3, and 4 on the previous pages will support this pursuit of critical and constructive reasoning skills for students, and is especially representative of graduate level education. Below are two examples of instructional objectives representing these higher performance levels of instruction:

• The student will interview a standardized patient who mimics a difficult historian, appropriately utilizing open-ended, direct and menu question types with demonstration of clarification and summarization techniques, and avoiding leading and complex question types. (Psychomotor - adaptation)

• In response to a written essay question, the student will identify the value of PA licensure in protecting the consumer, the state, the employer, and the PA, as evaluated by a PA faculty member. (Affective - organization)

Outcome-Based Education
	Teaching and Testing at Various Levels
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