Learn: Teaching Goal vs. Learning Objective

What did I learn today?
I learned the difference between a teaching goal and a learning objective. A second part of that is learning how beneficial it is to know the difference between the two, but also to have them set in stone before teaching a class or planning a program for students. Today in my Facilitating Student Learning class, we went over the importance of planning out the learning scheme of what a class or program would look like while using Romans 3:23-25 as the content. Let’s just say, a good number of us in the class struggled back and forth what the difference was between a teaching goal and a learning objective. There were a few of us that have educational undergrad majors that that helped out a bit. Yet the rest of us struggled with the concept. You would think it would be easy to distinguish between the two, but when you actually sit down and think about it, it’s quite a challenge.

In simpler terms (or what my brain thinks): a teaching goal is what the professor wants to accomplish that they must do. A learning objective is geared towards the students and what the professor would like for them to learn.

For example, a teaching goal might be that the professor would like to create an open and honest space for his or her students to feel comfortable to have great discussions. A learning objective is for students to learn how to have open and honest discussions while being willing to mindful to others yet challenging them at the same time.

The benefits of having these two are that you have something to work from. You have an end goal in your mind. I like to think of it like it as a motivation for you as you prepare to teach or program. It’s also like a purpose statement that you are working from. You have to remain loyal to it in order to be effective. Granted, there may be times where you have to be flexible and adapt to different situations. They also help you keep you focus on what is being presented to your students. For me, I like having them written down on paper because whenever I get frustrated or feel like something is a little off, I can refer back and see what the foundation I was building off on was.

To be honest, I felt pretty official that I was able to grasp that concept and come up with several different examples in my head. I’m well on my way on being an educator. Yes, I do acknowledge that I may sound nerdy, but I’m proud of it.

That's what I learned today.