Achieving Our Teaching Objectives -

Achieving Our Teaching Objectives

Article by Mark Powell

This article is aimed at instructors and, if you are already an instructor, I expect you already know what learning is?

I assume most of you just mentally answered yes without a second thought. Of course, you know what learning is. However, before you read the rest of this article, I want you to either write down or repeat out loud your definition of learning.

I am guessing that wasn’t as easy as you might have thought. It is interesting that many instructors who want to achieve learning in their students are not always sure what learning means or what it looks like. There are a number of dictionary definitions of learning below.

Definitions of Learning

To memorize knowledge or information
The acquisition of knowledge or skills through study, experience, or being taught
A permanent observable change in behaviour

The first definition seems suitable for an academic subject or a situation where the need to pass an exam doesn’t seem appropriate for diving which is a more practical activity. The second definition seems better as it refers to skills.

I prefer the last definition as it matches the type of learning that we need in diving. There are two aspects to this definition. The first part is that learning involves “a permanent change.” If a change occurs but it disappears as soon as the student leaves the class, then did they learn? I think most people would say no.

This is a fundamental problem with most scuba training. We do not look for permanent change. If the student can perform the skill right now, then we tick off that skill on a checklist and move on to the next. There is no consideration as to whether they will be able to perform the skill in a week or a month or under stressful situations. This is a critical aspect but one we will have to return to in a later article.

The second aspect of the definition is that it calls for an “observable change in behaviour.” It is critical we understand what change in behaviour we are looking for. If we do not know what change we are looking for how will we know if we achieve it? However, many instructors believe (or have been taught) that teaching involves following a process. If they follow the correct process, then they have taught the student. That may be true, they may have taught but it doesn’t mean the student has learned.

I have often seen instructors become frustrated because their students “just don’t get it.” When asked what they mean by “it” the instructor struggles to answer. They may not be able to answer, but they are confident that they will recognise “it” when they see “it”. This is one of the key mistakes in teaching. Without knowing exactly what you are trying to achieve it is difficult to put a plan in place to achieve it.

This is where the idea of a learning objective or learning outcome come from. The learning objective is the “observable change in behaviour” we are looking for. In other words, we start with the end in mind. Determine what change we are looking for and then determine how we can achieve that change.

Learning objectives are a deceptively simple concept. We just need to come up with a specific testable change that we want to see.

This is easy to say, but like many skills takes practice. Common mistakes are that the objective is too general or is impossible to test. Another common mistake is that the objective focuses on what the instructor will do when it should focus on what the student will be able to do. A good way to structure an objective in order to avoid some of these problems is to put it into the form;

“by the end of this session you will be able to ….”

where ‘….’ represents the objective.

This can be used to detect poor objectives. For example,

“Today I am going to talk about decompression theory”

“In this pool session, we will go through mask clearing.”

In both cases the emphasis is on the instructor or the process, there is no focus on the behaviour of the student.

Using the structure above we can refocus these on the student.

“By the end of this session, you will know all about decompression theory”

“By the end of this session, you will have mastered mask clearing”

This is better, they are focused on the student, but are these realistic objectives? Knowing all about decompression theory is a hugely ambitious goal that would take years to achieve. This is just not feasible; of course, most instructors would say that they didn’t mean ‘all about decompression theory’ they just meant ‘the relevant parts of decompression theory to the relevant level.’ Which then begs the question, what are the relevant parts and what is the relevant level?

We can be more specific by focusing on the second condition, that the objective should be testable. How will we test that the objective has been met? How will we prove that the behaviour has been achieved? We can do this by focusing on the actual change in behaviour that we want.

Knowing is not a change in behaviour and is not a productive word to use in an objective. Equally ‘understand,’ ‘learn,’ ‘respect’ or ‘appreciate’ are too vague to be used in an objective. These are internal mental states whereas the objective should give the external behaviour or action we are looking for. As a result, the objective should use an action or doing word (verb) such as ‘explain,’ ‘list,’ ‘assemble,’ ‘define,’ ‘calculate,’ ‘plan,’ ‘analyse,’ ‘describe,’ etc.

We can use a more appropriate doing word (verb) to create a more specific behaviour.

“By the end of this session you will be able to list two factors that affect our No Decompression Limit.”

“By the end of this session you will be able to clear a flooded mask”

By structuring the objective in this way, it makes it much easier to test whether they have achieved the objective. The objective is the behaviour we want them to achieve so we just ask them to demonstrate that behaviour.

“Now we have completed the decompression theory section can you list the two factors that affect our No Decompression Limit?”

Creating Learning Objectives

When setting objectives consider:

Audience
Behaviour
Conditions
Degree

Audience

The behaviour described by the objective will vary depending on the level of the course. For example, the level of decompression knowledge expected of an open water diver will be very different to that expected of a technical diver.

Open Water – By the end of this session you will be able to list two factors that affect our No Decompression Limit.

Trimix – By the end of this session you will be able to describe the impact changing the high and low gradient factors will have on our decompression profile.

It is essential that we have a realistic expectation of the behaviour we want from the diver. Expecting the same proficiency in mask clearing from an open water diver on their first pool session versus their last open water dive is unrealistic, as is expecting the same level of proficiency of an open water diver and a dive-master candidate.

Behaviour

This part should now be the easy bit. It is the action you are looking to see. However, there is more to it than that. For a classroom session do we want them to remember certain facts or answers without necessarily understanding their meaning or do we want them to demonstrate an understanding of those facts and summarise the key points. Or do we want them to go further and apply that knowledge to solve problems in new or unfamiliar ways.

For an in-water session do we want them to copy our actions when prompted, do we want them to perform the skills smoothly and accurately or do we want them to adapt the skill to the conditions.

In other words, where on Blooms taxonomy do we expect them to be performing. Of course, this will depend on a number of things including what level the course is and whether we are at the start or end of the course. The key thing is that it is unreasonable to expect an open water student on day one of a course to achieve the same standard as the instructor who has been teaching that skill for many years.

Conditions

We also need to look at the conditions under which we want the skill performed. A student clearing their mask while kneeling on the bottom of a pool may be acceptable for the first pool session, but by the end of the pool sessions and certainly by the time the student is in open water, we want them to be able to clear their mask while neutrally buoyant. These are the conditions in which they may need to perform the skill when in the real world so our objective should be to ensure that they can achieve the skill under these conditions.

“By the end of this session you will be able to clear a flooded mask while maintaining neutral buoyancy”

Degree

The last thing to consider is the level of performance that is acceptable. If the student is being asked to clear their mask while neutrally buoyant then what level of variation would be considered acceptable? How many attempts or breaths would be considered acceptable? This will be linked to the audience, again you would expect a different degree of performance from an open water student and a dive master trainee or technical diving instructor candidate.

“By the end of this session you will be able to clear a flooded mask within three attempts while maintaining neutral buoyancy to within plus or minus 1m/3ft of your starting position.”

“By the end of this session you will be able to clear a flooded mask with a single attempt while maintaining neutral buoyancy to within plus or minus 0.5m/1.5ft of your starting position.”

Learning objectives are the closest we have as instructors to a magic wand. If you can construct a specific, testable objective that is appropriate for the level of the student then it makes it much easier for you to structure the lessons required to achieve that objective. It makes it easier for the student to understand what they are being asked to achieve, and it makes it easier for the student and instructor to tell whether the student has achieved the required level. All of this makes for a much more productive learning environment and makes it much more likely that the teaching carried out by the instructor results in learning by the student.