Korean Medical Education Review (의학교육논단)

Yonsei university college of medicine (연세대학교 의과대학)
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A Critical Evaluation of the Concept and Writing of Learning Outcomes

학습성과의 개념과 작성에 대한 탐구

  • Lee, Dong Yub (Department of Education, Gyeongsang National University College of Education) ;
  • Yang, Eunbae B. (Department of Medical Education, Yonsei University College of Medicine)
  • 이동엽 (경상대학교 사범대학 교육학과) ;
  • 양은배 (연세대학교 의과대학 의학교육학과)
  • Received : 2016.10.02
  • Accepted : 2016.10.17
  • Published : 2016.10.31
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Abstract

Recent changes in educational paradigms that emphasize the performance or outcomes of education are redefining how learning objectives are being described as 'learning outcomes' in various academic disciplines. Medical education is not an exception to this trend. However, it has come to our attention that the key concepts and appropriate descriptions of learning outcomes have not been well understood among educators and that this lack of understanding has hindered our efforts to implement the practice in the field. This study aims to provide a direction to establish and describe learning outcomes by examining previous studies that have focused on setting learning objectives as well as learning outcomes. Setting and describing learning outcomes starts from reflection on the approach of behavioral learning objectives, which overemphasizes learner's acquired knowledge, skills, and attitude in each classroom rather than actual performance. On the other hand, the learning outcome approach focuses on what the learner is able to do as a result of a learning experience. This approach is more learner-friendly and encourages students to lead and be responsible for their learning process. Learning outcomes can best be described when the relevance of actual contexts and the hierarchy of learning objectives are considered. In addition, they should be in the form of context, task, performance, and level, as well as be planned with proper assessment and feedback procedures. When these conditions are met, the learning outcome approach is beneficial to students as it presents a curriculum that is more open to learners. Despite these advantages of the learning outcome approach, there is a possible concern that setting the learning outcomes and describing them can restrict evaluation to lower cognitive skills if the concept of learning outcome is narrowly interpreted or is set too low. To avoid such narrow applications, it is important for educators to understand the comprehensiveness of the learning outcome setting and to consider long-term outcomes embedded in an organizational vision rather than only short-term behavioral outcomes.

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References

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