The learning outcomes framework – what impact does it have?

Malta is currently going through times when its curriculum (the overall structure of what is taught) is changing.

This does not mean that the content of the subjects being taught are being changed; rather, it is the way in which that content is organised that is being changed. Previously, the curriculum had been syllabusled, implying that teachers would have to follow prescribed instructions on what they were expected to cover with their students. The outcomes-based approach does not really ‘replace’ the use of the syllabus. This is because, like a syllabus, it informs teachers what students are expected to do within a given school year. The outcomes approach, though, allows for greater flexibility than a syllabus does.

The outcomes-approach is constituted of each subject, or group of subjects, being designated learning outcomes. Learning outcomes simply stipulate what knowledge or skills students are expected to have achieved, and what they would be able to do with that knowledge, in terms of competencies. This is why outcomes-based education is sometimes called competency-based education.

The adoption of learning outcomes in schools, and even in colleges and universities, is not as recent as one may perhaps be inclined to imagine. As a case in point, the Washington Accord, which was created in 1989, is an on-going agreement that is now forged between Australia, Canada, Taiwan, Hong Kong, India, Ireland, Japan, Korea, Malaysia, New Zealand, Russia, Singapore, South Africa, Sri Lanka, Turkey, the United Kingdom, and the United States. The Washington Accord binds signatories to accept undergraduate degrees from certain courses that were obtained using an outcomes-based curriculum. At primary and secondary school level, outcomes-based education has been used in New Zealand and Australia since the 1990s.

Of particular relevance to the Maltese context is the European Qualifications Framework wherein, in 2012, the EU called for the adoption of learning outcomes in primary and secondary schools throughout its member states. The main reason why it advocated this transition to an outcomes-based approach was mainly to address unemployment. So as to decrease the number of unemployed people in Europe, it recommended that students acquire the skills that they will need when they complete their education, thereby ensuring that all education was aligned to the demands of the labour market and was ‘relevant.’

Malta’s shift toward the adoption of learning outcomes is essentially guided by the Learning Outcomes Framework which is aligned to the National Curriculum Framework. Both these frameworks promote a holistic education, that is, one that is ‘well-rounded.’ The Learning Outcomes Framework is aligned to the European Qualifications Framework. It shares with it a thrust toward encouraging schools to prepare students for the challenges and opportunities that they encounter as young people and for those that will meet in both personal and professional situations later on in life.

While some see learning outcomes as associated with additional tasks, since there is also an element of curriculum design (mapping out of the work that is to be undertaken) which is infused with curriculum delivery (teaching), learning outcomes are essentially a student-centred approach to teaching. By adopting the use of learning outcomes, teachers will be better enabled to map out the skills, knowledge and competencies which students acquire. This is because there would be clear criteria for measurement and achievement of competencies. Also, since teachers can prescribe how much time it would take them to reach certain outcomes, their teaching would be more personal and adaptive. A further plus-point is the wide adoption of a cross-disciplinary approach. The Learning Outcomes Framework refers to (i) learning areas, such as humanities, maths, and languages; and (ii) cross-curricular themes, such as education for diversity, education for entrepreneurship, creativity and innovation, and digital literacy. This shows that what is being proposed is an approach to enable students to perform outcome-based assessment tasks which do not necessarily fit in the domain of only one subject. This serves to make both teaching and learning more enriching. Added to this, through proposing the introduction of Vocational Education and Training (VET) subjects, it is being foreseen that lessons at school would have a stronger link to employment through work-based learning as a result. Since the EU has recommended that work-based learning for students should lead on to recognition of the (vocational) training they had undertaken, the Learning Outcomes Framework is specifying that where students are unable to achieve certification at Level 3 in certain VET subjects, then they would be offered the possibility of achieving it at lower level.