Designing the Aims of Courses According to the Concept of Outcome-Based Education

Abstract

Changes within higher education as a consequence of the Bologna process have become a source of increased requirements for teachers. They are expected to maintain a high quality of education despite the massification of studies and increasing competition. At the same time, more and more often, opinions can be heard that classes taught at universities are not very useful. Thus, in this context the issue of the quality of learning objectives will be addressed. The aim of this paper is to present the dependencies that exist between learning objectives, methods of teaching and learning outcomes. Against the background of the generally outlined changes within higher education, which have led to the implementation of the National Qualifications Framework, including a directive on formulating measurable learning outcomes, the paper discusses the concept of outcome- based education (OBE) which is the essence of the changing philosophy of education. Next, the methodology of designing learning goals based on the concept of OBE is presented, and attention is drawn to the diversity and taxonomy of the goals. The need to take into account not only declarative but also procedural knowledge is strongly emphasized. This requires a change in the approach to teaching, which ought to be based on the intellectual involvement and increased activity of students. The author also highlights the importance of teaching tasks that allow students to analyse, synthesize, think critically and solve problems, according to the intended learning outcomes. The article ends with some remarks concerning ways of making classes more interesting for students.