Learning Goals

Learning goals are specific

statements of intended student
attainment of essential
concepts and skills.
3 Pivotal Questions
Where is the
learner
going?

Where is the
learner right
now?

How will the

learner get
there?
(Thompson
&Wiliam, 2007)
Learning Goal
The learning goal is the heart of assessment for learning
and needs to be made clear at the planning stage if
teachers are to find assessment for learning manageable.
 The Instruction &
Assessment Planning
Process
1. Establish Unit Big Idea(s) from IACC
2. Establish:
Learning Goals
Criteria for Success
Formative assessment strategies
3. Review and revise
Check alignment with Big Ideas
Specificity of Learning Goals,
Success Criteria and FA
 Instruction & Assessment
Planning Template
Essential Concept/Skill:

Big Idea:
Learning Goals Success Criteria AfL Strategies
Deeping Understanding of Learning Goals

FROM THE RESEARCH

Literature Review
Activity
Review the Iowa
Assessment for
Learning Literature
Review and the
Assessment for
Learning Brief
sections on
Learning Goals.

Reading Reflection
After completing a
review of both
documents,
collaborate on
completing a
converging radial.
 Quotes from Research
1. When teachers start from what it is they want students to know and design their
instruction backward from that goal, then instruction is far more likely to be
effective (Wiggins and McTighe 2000).

2. The indispensable conditions for improvement are that the student comes to hold
a concept of quality roughly similar to that held by the teacher, is continuously
able to monitor the quality of what is being produced during the act of production
itself, and has a repertoire of alternative moves or strategies from which to draw
at any given point ."A key premise is that for students to be able to improve, they
must have the capacity to monitor the quality of their own work during actual
production ... This in turn requires that students: (
Know what high quality work looks like
Be able to objectively compare their work to the standard
Have a store of tactics to make work better based on their observations."
(Royce Sadler 1989).

3. Students cannot assess their own learning or set goals to work toward without a
clear vision of the intended learning(R.Stiggins, J. Arter, J. Chappuis & S.
Chappuis, 2006)

4. Sharing learning objectives or intentions offers pupils an opportunity to become

involved in what they are learning through discussing and deciding the criteria
for success, which they can then use to identify evidence of improvements (Eric
Young 2005).

5. Classroom where students understand the learning outcomes for daily lessons
see performance rates 20% higher than those where learning outcomes are
unclear. (Marzano, 2003)
Why Share
Learning Goals
Research suggests that
pupils who understand
what they are being
asked to learn and how
they will recognize
success are more likely
to make learning gains
than those who dont.
This is particularly true
for less able pupils.

Black& Wiliam (1998, 2003,

2004, 2009)
DeMeester & Jones (2009)
Meyer, Turner & Spencer
(1997)
Wiggins & McTighe (2000)
The general effect of setting goals or objectives produces
a gain of between 18% and 41%)
[Marzano, Classroom Instruction that
Works, p. 93].

34%

Why is it important to focus on student learning outcomes?

 Clear Learning Goals
Impact on students:
More focused (especially
underachieving students).
Demand knowing the learning target.
More likely to express learning needs
specifically.
Develops a learning culture.
Quality of work improves.
Behavior improves.
Persevere longer.
Greater ownership of learning as
responsibility shifts from teacher to
student.
Automatically self-evaluative.
More enthusiastic about learning.
Impact on teachers:
More focused.
Sharpens teacher understanding of
learning target.
Expectations rise.
Focus on quality rather than getting
everything done.
More critical of activities.
Reinforces relevant vocabulary.
Assists in reflection of lesson and
learning that occurred.
Strengthen connections with
parents related to childs strengths
and weaknesses.
Why is this important?
There is a body of research that indicates
when students are clear about their
learning goal, a goal that describes the
intended learning, they perform
significantly better than those who are
given goals that focus on task completion.

Making the intended learning clear,

substitutesa learning goalmindset for
their activity-oriented way of thinking.
It focuses the attention to learning by
helping them understand that the
assignment is the means to the learning .
 Why is it important to
share learning goals with

students?
Gives students a clear idea of what will be learned and why
Transfers some of the responsibility for learning to the
students
Enables students to be active participants rather than passive
recipients
Gives students a clear idea of what they are aspiring to, so
they are more likely to achieve
Provides students with a tool for evaluating their own learning
Makes the task clearer for students, so they may carry it out
more successfully
Helps students to focus on the purpose of the learning, rather
than merely on the completion of the activity
Helps students to stay on task and refine their work so that
this matches the objectives more closely
Helps teachers review progress and gives them a clearer focus
for their marking
Adapted from Brighton & Hove Assessment for Learning Project (September 2002)
 Learning Goal Qualities:
arrive from evidence already known about the students
learning;
are written in student-friendly terms;
are based on an understanding of the learning progression;
allow students to make connections to prior learning;
guide the development of success criteria;
guide the development of formative and summative
assessments; and
guide teacher actions.

What They Are Not:

descriptions of student tasks or activities
necessarily measureable
Learning Goals

FROM THEORY TO
PRACTICE IN IOWA
Essential Concept: Understand the role of scarcity and economic trade-offs and how economic conditions impact
peoples lives.
K-2 3-5 6-8 9-12
Understand the role of Understand the role of Understand the role of Understand the role of
scarcity and economic scarcity and economic scarcity and economic scarcity and economic
trade-offs and how trade-offs and how trade-offs and how trade-offs and how
economic conditions economic conditions impact economic conditions impact economic conditions impact
impact peoples lives. peoples lives. people's lives. peoples lives.
Types of resources Choices usually involve The wide disparities that The relationship between
and that they are tradeoffs: people can give exist across the globe in economic goals and the
limited. up buying or doing one terms of economic assets allocation of scarce
The economic trade- thing in order to buy or do and choices. resources.
offs that individuals something else. Good judgment in making How economic incentives
and households weigh Wide disparities exist personal choices related to influence the economic
when making between the haves and spending and saving. choices made by individuals,
decisions involving have-nots of the world in Predicts short-term and households, businesses,
the use of limited terms of economic well- long-term financial governments, and societies
resources. being. consequences based on to use scarce human capital
The goods and services current choices. and natural resources more
that the local school and Ways goods and services efficiently to meet their
community provide and the are produced and economic goals.
people who provide them. distributed
The differences between
producers and consumers in
a market economy.

Economics Learning Progression

From Jason Riley, East Union CSD
 Big Idea: Scarcity and economic trade-offs are essential to all economic activity. (Econ 1)
Learning Goal Success Criteria FA Strategy
I can:
Understand the differences between
producers and consumers in a market
economy.

I can:
Understand the ways goods and
services are produced and
distributed.

I can:
Understand the influences that affect .
personal economic choices.
Examples of Learning Goals
from the Iowa Core
Social Studies, Geography, Grades 6-8

Essential Concept: Understand how geographic and

human characteristics create culture and define regions.

Big Idea: Geographers have developed regions as tools to examine, define,

describe, explain, and analyze the human and physical environment.

Learning Goal Learning Goal Example:

Example: Understand
that geographic regions
define both convenient
and manageable units
upon which to build our
knowledge of the world.
Understand that a basic
unit of geographic study is the
region, an area on the earths
surface that is defined by
certain unifying
characteristics.
 Questions to Focus

Feedback
Does the learning goal focus on what
students will learn instead of what students
will do?
Will the learning goal help students to focus
on the purpose of the learning, rather than
merely on the completion of the activity?
Is the learning goal written in age-
appropriate language students will
understand?
Is the learning goal aligned to the Big Idea
of the learning intention?
Is the learning goal aligned to the essential
concept and skill?
This PowerPoint was adapted from a PowerPoint created
for the 2009-2010 Assessment for Learning Project of the
Iowa Department of Education in partnership with