Problems with many
course objectives
lTend to be teacher-focused
l
lTend to be abstract:
lHow do you know whether students have achieved the course objectives?
lHow do your students know whether they have achieved these objectives?
l
But, as I learned in the workshop that I took on syllabus design, there are several problems with course objectives.

The first is that they tend to be teacher centered – focusing on what the teacher will do. Thus, it keeps the responsibility for learning squarely with the teacher, and not with the student.

But more problematically, I think, is that they are usually quite abstract. They are often couched in language that makes them difficult to assess. How do you, or your students, know whether you have achieved these goals? How do you know whether your students have ‘become familiar’ with something?