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Learning Objectives (LOs) convey student-centered goals of academic courses and programs. Further, lesson-level LOs have the potential to communicate to learners both the lesson’s content goal and the expected cognitive level of the content mastery. To effectively accomplish this communication, best practices in LO writing include the use of verbs that correspond to measurable actions and suggest the intended cognitive level of the LO. Another signal of cognitive level is the specification of LO context, i.e., the conditions under which the action is performed, which additionally benefits students by supporting contextualization of their learning and application to novel situations. However, the practice of LO context specification has received less attention in the literature. We sought to determine the prevalence of explicit context specification in lesson-level LOs across biology sub-disciplines, and asked whether specification of context correlates with use of verbs signifying higher-order cognitive tasks. Three experienced biology instructors analyzed 13 lists of lesson-level LOs prepared by professional biology societies. We categorized each LO in two ways: by likely cognitive level (Lower-Order Cognitive Skills [LOCS], Higher-Order Cognitive Skills [HOCS], or Unassigned) based on the verb used; and by contextuality (Contextual, Stand-Alone, or Uncertain) based on manual coding (including but not limited to verbs). On average, less than 25% of society-endorsed LOs had a clearly specified context (i.e., were rated as Contextual). Furthermore, LOs with “HOCS verbs” (presumably intended to signal cognition beyond straight recall of facts) were more likely to be coded as Stand-Alone than Contextual. Our results suggest the disadvantage of relying solely on verbs to determine cognitive level of LOs and the advantage of including context to more transparently and effectively promote higher-order cognition. To this end, we offer suggested LO phrasing options to more clearly signal context and help students better contextualize their learning.
