<!--[if !mso]> <style> v\:* {behavior:url(#default#VML);} o\:* {behavior:url(#default#VML);} w\:* {behavior:url(#default#VML);} .shape {behavior:url(#default#VML);} </style> <![endif]--><!--<!--<!--[if gte mso 10]> <style> /* Style Definitions */ table.MsoNormalTable {mso-style-name:"Table Normal"; mso-tstyle-rowband-size:0; mso-tstyle-colband-size:0; mso-style-noshow:yes; mso-style-priority:99; mso-style-qformat:yes; mso-style-parent:""; mso-padding-alt:0cm 5.4pt 0cm 5.4pt; mso-para-margin:0cm; mso-para-margin-bottom:.0001pt; mso-pagination:widow-orphan; font-size:11.0pt; font-family:"Calibri","sans-serif"; mso-ascii-font-family:Calibri; mso-ascii-theme-font:minor-latin; mso-fareast-font-family:"Times New Roman"; mso-fareast-theme-font:minor-fareast; mso-hansi-font-family:Calibri; mso-hansi-theme-font:minor-latin; mso-bidi-font-family:Arial; mso-bidi-theme-font:minor-bidi;} </style> <![endif]-->

<!--[if !mso]> <style> v\:* {behavior:url(#default#VML);} o\:* {behavior:url(#default#VML);} w\:* {behavior:url(#default#VML);} .shape {behavior:url(#default#VML);} </style> <![endif]--><!--<!--<!--[if gte mso 10]> <style> /* Style Definitions */ table.MsoNormalTable {mso-style-name:"Table Normal"; mso-tstyle-rowband-size:0; mso-tstyle-colband-size:0; mso-style-noshow:yes; mso-style-priority:99; mso-style-qformat:yes; mso-style-parent:""; mso-padding-alt:0cm 5.4pt 0cm 5.4pt; mso-para-margin:0cm; mso-para-margin-bottom:.0001pt; mso-pagination:widow-orphan; font-size:10.0pt; font-family:"Times New Roman","serif";} </style> <![endif]--><!--<!--

The Teaching-Learning Cycle

Using Student Learning Outcome Results to Improve Teaching & Learning

Since the Accrediting Commission identified “measuring student learning outcomes” as the focus of the latest revision of the WASC standards, many of us have been struggling with what we are expected to do differently.[i] Whatever we do to implement Student Learning Outcomes, this initiative must be seen to add value to the teaching and learning process—value that clearly outweighs the task of constructing SLOs. Those of us who have taught for years consider that we already measure student learning. However, I have come to believe that SLOs really do have a new and useful emphasis that can be best captured by one word: results—collecting them, sharing them, and using them to improve both learning and the operation of our colleges. This series of reflections are intended to address getting useful results from the SLO process—maximizing utility and minimizing futility. (That little “f” really makes a difference, doesn’t it?)

Student Learning Outcomes at the Lesson Level

As we teach each lesson and grade the related student assignments, we typically have a clear concept of the results expected, and we have defined methods for assessing student work and assigning grades. However, there are several things that we typically don’t do that can potentially improve student learning. While many of us do give students written learning objectives for each lesson, we usually do not write down criteria for grading nor share them with students—other than how total points relate to the final grade in the course.

In listening to practitioners of SLOs such as Lisa Brewster[ii], a Speech teacher at San Diego Miramar College, and Janet Fulks[iii], a Microbiology teacher at Bakersfield College, it is clear that SLOs can become a powerful pedagogical tool by:

• sharing grading criteria with students,
• getting students to use these criteria as a way to better understand the material, and
• having students evaluate their own and each other’s work.