LIBR 294. Professional Experience: Internships
Internship Learning Outcomes
Learning Outcomes are statements that describe significant and essential learning that students have achieved and can reliably demonstrate at the end of a course. In other words, what the students will have learned and be able to do by the end of the term. Statements of learning should focus on the acquisition of observable and measurable knowledge, skills and abilities and reflect the desired end of the learning experience, not the means or the process (a list of activities performed for the internship).
Learning Outcomes, as they are usually defined today, use Bloom's Taxonomy of Learning as a foundation. Developed in the mid-1950s, Bloom’s Taxonomy was used unchanged for over 30 years. In the 1990s, the taxonomy was finally updated to reflect education as we moved into the 21st century. According to the revised Bloom, we learn for 6 reasons: 1) to Remember, 2) to Understand, 3) to Apply, 4) to Analyze, 5) to Evaluate, and/or 6) to Create.
Additionally, each of the six "levels" of learning builds upon the one before it creating something of a learning hierarchy. That hierarchy goes something like this: Remembering is the recognition and recall of facts/specifics; Understanding interprets, translates or paraphrases information that you remember — you have to know something in order to demonstrate understanding; Applying is using information in a situation different from the original learning context — you have to understand something in order to demonstrate application; Analyzing is being able to separate information into its essential elements to make things clear — you have to be able to apply something in order to demonstrate analysis; Evaluating is the ability to make judgments or decisions based on information from your analysis and form new information — you need to be able to analyze in order to demonstrate evaluation; and finally, Creating is being able to come up with a new idea or a new way to look at a current issue or idea — you need to be able to evaluate in order to create something new.
So, one of the "tricks" of writing learning outcomes is to focus on that "end state" (the outcome) and think about how you can measure whether you have achieved your desired outcome. One mechanism that should help is to use what are called "action verbs" when writing your learning outcomes. Educational theorists have developed lists of action verbs that reinforce each of the six levels of learning; a sample of those verbs is as follows:
- Remembering — define, recall, list, recognize, memorize
- Understanding — classify, discuss, explain, identify, describe
- Applying — interpret, choose, employ, illustrate
- Analyzing — contrast, compare, distinguish, differentiate
- Evaluating — appraise, judge, select, support
- Creating — assemble, construct, design, develop, formulate
[Numerous lists of action verbs for the different learning levels can be found on the web.]
Keep in mind also that certain verbs are unclear and subject to different interpretations in terms of what actions they are specifying. Such verbs call for covert behavior which cannot be observed or measured, and as such these types of verbs should be avoided, such as:
- appreciate
- become aware of
- become familiar with
- learn
- know
In order to effectively use the information above in shaping your learning outcomes, you need to determine what level of learning should result from your internship. And here are a couple of hints. First, learning at the "remembering" level is very, very basic — almost to the point of learning by memorization. While some of you may find yourself in a situation of learning something entirely new for your internship, most internship sites want you to make some kind of contribution to the organization, so you will need to go beyond the remembering level. You might have one outcome (out of say 3–4 or more) that is remembering–oriented, but we will be very skeptical if all your outcomes are at this level. At the least, we will be looking for outcomes at the "understanding" level or above. Second, to really contribute to your site, you'll probably need to know something well enough to apply it, so gearing your outcomes to the "application" level is a good focus to take in preparing your outcome statements. If you can reasonably get your outcomes to the analyzing, evaluating or creating levels, then so much the better for you and your internship site. And, if you have 3–4 outcomes they all do not have to be at the same learning level — you might have one or two "major" outcomes and then a "minor" outcome or two.
Finally, please be aware that learning outcomes are NOT the same as the competencies the School has identified and you need to meet for LIBR 289. While your internship experience may help you meet one or more competencies, using one of the competency statements (in whole or in part) for a learning outcome will not be accepted.
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