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Manual for ESTRO Teachers
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Learning Outcomes specify the intended endpoint of a period of engagement in specified learning activities. They are written in the future
tense and should clearly indicate the nature and/or level of learning required to achieve them successfully. They should be achievable and
assessable and use language that learners (and other teachers) can easily understand. They relate to explicit statements of achievement
and always contain verbs.
Outcomes should be
SMART
: Specific, Measurable, Achievable, Realistic and Timebound.
Individual outcomes should relate to one of the three domains described by Bloom (1956):
• Cognitive (knowledge and intellectual skills)
• Psychomotor (physical skills)
• Affective (feelings and attitudes).
Outcomes should avoid ambiguity or over-complexity. The table below lists the elements of the revised cognitive domain with a brief
description, and then some useful verbs that can be used to map the learning outcome on to the relevant level.
Bloom’s Taxonomy:
cognitive domain
Description
Useful verbs for outcome-level statements
Evaluation
Ability to judge X for a
purpose
Judge, appraise, evaluate, compare, assess, conclude, contrast, criticise,
critique, defend, describe, discriminate, explain, interpret, justify, relate,
summarise, support
Synthesis
Arranging and assembling
elements into a whole
Design, organise, formulate, propose, categorise, combine, compile,
compose, create, devise, design, explain, generate, modify, organise, plan,
rearrange, reconstruct, relate, reorganise, revise, rewrite, summarise, tell,
write
Analysis
Breaking down
components to clarify
Distinguish, analyse, calculate, test, inspect, break down, compare,
contrast, diagram, deconstruct, differentiate, discriminate, distinguish,
identify, illustrate, infer, outline, relate, select, separate
Application
Using the rules and
principles
Apply, use, illustrate, practise, change, compute, construct, demonstrate,
discover, manipulate, modify, operate, predict, prepare, produce, relate,
show, solve
Comprehension
Grasping the meaning but
not extending it beyond the
present situation
Comprehend, convert, defend, distinguish, estimate, explain, extend,
generalise, give example, infer, interpret, paraphrase, predict, rewrite,
summarise, translate
Knowledge
Recall of information
previously presented
Define, list, name, recall, record, define, describe, identify, know, label, list,
match, name, outline, recall, recognise, reproduce, select, state
If possible, resist the temptation to use words and phrases like:
Know..., Understand..., Really know..., Fully understand..., Be familiar with..., Become acquainted with..., Have a good grasp of..., Obtain
a working knowledge of..., Acquire a feeling for...,
The majority of these examples are imprecise and difficult to make
‘SMART’.
COURSE PRESENTATIONS ANDCONTENT
Defining Learning outcomes for EACH
course presentation
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