Skeff: Communication of Goals

Clearly stated expectations of observable behaviors empower the learner to participate in his or her own learning experience. The role of the teacher is to state specific behavioral and educational objectives; define and model appropriate attitude, knowledge, and skills; and guide the learner in accomplishing the stated expectations.

• Explicit learning and behavioral objectives provide a template for the overall learning experience
• Explicit behavioral objectives provide opportunities to re-examine the appropriateness of particular expectations
• Objectives and expectations may change over the course of the learning experience, but must be clearly re-stated to the learner(s)
• Objectives must relate to specific, observable behaviors, such as
• demonstration of knowledge (material)
• skills (problem-solving or technical)
• attitudes (interaction with patients or staff)
• Clearly stated expectations provide for objective evaluation or assessment of the learner, the learning environment, and the learning experience
• example: For tomorrow's session, please do a complete H+P presuming I know nothing about your patient.
• example: When you present your patient on rounds, please end with the active problem list and plan for that day.