1. Focus on what students will know and be able to do. All disciplines have a body of core knowledge that students must learn to be successful as well as a core set of applications of that knowledge in professional settings. Effective knowledge SLOs begin with phrases such as “Students know….”, “Students identify…” or similar verbs that specify a behavior that indicates knowledge acquisition.
When writing SLOs that focus on what students are able to do as a result of the program, select a verb that best describes the action involved in the observed behavior. A guiding question is: what cognitive processes or skills do students engage when demonstrating the behavior? For example, “Students analyze…”, “Students evaluate…” or similar verbs that specifically describe the behavior expected (see Table 3 for a more thorough list of verbs associated with Bloom’s Taxonomy).
2. Describe observable and measureable actions or behaviors. Effective SLOs present a core set of observable, measureable behaviors. Measurement tools vary from quizzes and tests to complex rubrics. There are some verbs to be avoided when writing SLOs, because they designate behaviors that are internal and not observable. Here is a list of verbs and phrases to avoid:
• Understand
• Appreciate
• Become familiar with
• Learn about, think about
• Become aware of, gain an awareness of
• Demonstrate the ability to
Bloom’s Taxonomy (Anderson, Krathwohl, Airasian, Cruikshank, Mayer, & Pintrich, 2001) is a widely accepted description of the dimensions of knowledge and cognitive skills that are used to formulate educational objectives. Student Learning Outcomes are the educational objectives of UF degree programs, so this taxonomy provides a valuable resource in developing measureable SLOs. Table 1 presents the Knowledge dimension levels and their descriptions. Table 2 presents the Cognitive dimension and the six levels of the hierarchy and their descriptions. Table 3 presents a list of specific verbs that engage students in processes that are observable and measurable.