Making a Learning Goal Visible
A course goal is easy to state and hard to see. One task and one follow-up can show whether students can use an idea, which a definition question cannot.
Explore teaching decisionsSuppose the goal is that students can tell whether a study supports a causal claim. A definition question, such as "what is the difference between correlation and causation?", will not show it, because a student can answer from memory without ever applying the idea. Definitions are a starting point. Applying them to unfamiliar evidence shows something more.
A better task describes a small study and asks for a conclusion. Imagine students are told that people who attended optional review sessions earned higher exam scores. A strong answer does four things. It identifies the design: attendance was chosen, so this is an observational comparison. It reports the result accurately: attenders scored higher. It justifies the inference: motivated students may both attend and score higher, so the sessions may not be the cause. And it names a limitation, such as a missing detail like attenders' earlier scores, which could help assess whether performance differed before the sessions. Scoring the four separately lets an instructor see which part is missing instead of forming one blended impression. The assessment guide develops this kind of claim-task-scoring match.
A sequence can make the reasoning visible. First, students write their answer and name two other possible explanations. Next, they compare it with a model answer and read feedback. A week later they meet a changed case and work alone, with no model in front of them, explaining how one alternative explanation would change the conclusion. That second response gives additional evidence of whether the reasoning can be applied to new material. This is an original proposal, and one changed case is evidence and not proof of lasting learning.
What students do with feedback is a design choice. Asking for a revision of one specific inference, rather than a fresh essay, asks students to use the feedback. The retrieval and spacing guide summarizes research on practice testing and spacing and notes that results depend on how an exercise is carried out in a course.
The first decision is what the follow-up will probe. A follow-up that repeats the first task may reflect recall of the first answer. One that presents a changed case probes whether the idea can be applied.