In my commitment to refining and developing my thinking as a reflective practitioner, here’s a couple of additions to the previous post as a result of Tweacher feedback:
@charte shared some learning from Cramlington, where, “…LOs were usually stated as Content…Process…Benefit which I found helpful!”
And @rachaelkp who tweeted, “..interesting and useful, could be followed by a question to take learner to next LO?” followed by, “…it also puts the learner in the driving seat, great for motivation.”
Which made me think of this as a type of LO equation, which is great for showing progress over time…
[Today’s LO] SO THAT [next lesson’s LO]
or for links to the wider world or longer term…
[Today’s Learning] SO THAT [BIG PICTURE OUTCOME: “You understand/ make informed choices/ contribute to…”]
or for connections to a specific skill…
[Today’s learning] SO THAT [application of skill: “You can…”]
or for a differentiated outcome…
[Today’s learning] SO THAT [all can…] [some can…] [most can…]
I’m sure there’s much more in this and I hope you understand that this blog post is my attempt to test out and share my thinking. But it seems that if we dissect the LO so we think about it in terms of exactly why and how the learning will result in the intended outcome, “Learning = Outcome” then we have a chance to be explicit and concrete about why ‘learning this‘ or ‘learning in this way‘ or even why ‘learning this right now‘ is important, relevant and meaningful. I also really like the Cramlington approach tweeted by Chris Harte which puts the process of learning into the equation.
If students can take the opportunity to reflect for themselves why they think they are ‘learning this’, ‘learning in this way’ and ‘learning this right now’ then they’ll be able to give us some invaluable feedback about the level and security of the understanding they have about their learning which we can then use to inform our teaching adaptations.
If there’s a way to really use LOs to drive the learning and work for us, then I reckon that it could well be yet another marginal gain well worth aggregating.
Full On Learning 
Found this really useful Zoe – I’ve been experimenting with my classes this week and am pleased with the differences it’s making to the way they think about learning objectives. In the past I’ve put ‘because’ after the LO to focus students on why we’re doing something byt ‘so that’ does seem to make it more specific and orients the learning very practically. Just putting ‘so that…’ and making them fill in the blanks works well too – generates some very interesting discussions about ‘good’ reasons for learning.
I’ve tried integrating this with the learning continuum idea (basically objective in a big arrow, outcomes leading off at different points) which means that students can select from a number of possible reasons about why they are learning. I’d show you a pic, but can’t on this comment thingy. Might need a post of its own.
Thanks for your feedback, David. I know the outcome arrows you mention; I’ve always liked this approach of yours and highly recommend people check out your ideas about learning objectives/outcomes (amongst others) in your blog http://www.learningspy.co.uk
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