Curricular Goals
Crafting Curricular Goals
Curricular goals are broad, general statements of (1) what the department/program will do to provide students with desired knowledge and skills, and (2) what students will do so that they gain desired knowledge and skills. Curricular goals are not the same thing as the actual knowledge or skills; those are "learning outcomes" and are discussed elsewhere on this website.Good curricular goals are based on clear verbs; a department/program will "guide" students or "offer" certain experiences, and students will "explore" certain ideas or "carry out" particular activities.
Goals are not directly demonstrable and are primarily useful at the department/program level, whereas learning outcomes are useful at the course level as well as the department/program level.
Curricular goals are important for assessment because they indicate the department/program intentions from which learning outcomes should be developed, and learning outcomes are at the heart of the assessment of student learning.
Curricular goals may be harder for departments and programs to craft than learning outcomes because the former can seem quite vague whereas the latter point to both very specific skills and knowledge and to very specific ways of demonstrating what the student knows and can do. It may be useful to think of curricular goals as pointing to the processes by which students will learn and of learning outcomes as the products of their learning.
To help departments and programs rework curricular goals if desired, two lists of example curricular goals are provided here, the first list based on verbs that describe what a program will do and the second list based on verbs that describe what a student will do or what will happen to the student. In each case, the verb is the most important element of the goal and the following words in parentheses suggest how a department or program might flesh out the goal.
A department or program will:
- Demonstrate (that something is true or how something works)
- Expose (students to ideas)
- Facilitate (student understanding)
- Foster (characteristics in students)
- Guide (students in understanding or accomplishing something)
- Help (students do or understand something)
- Highlight (an academic area, particular knowledge, or particular skills)
- Introduce (ideas or skills)
- Invite (students to do or learn something)
- Offer (experiences, perspectives)
- Point toward (resources for students)
- Present (material)
- Promote (ways to do things, the value of particular knowledge or skills)
- Provide (information, skills, experiences, resources)
- Teach (information, skills)
Students will:
- Become familiar with/aware of (ideas, disciplinary areas, resources)
- Broaden (their perspectives)
- Carry out (activities)
- Consider (ideas, perspectives)
- Contemplate (ideas, strategies for doing something)
- Discover (information, ideas)
- Engage in (activities)
- Examine (ideas, information, perspectives)
- Expand/deepen (their understanding of something)
- Experience (things)
- Explore (ideas, academic areas)
- Gain experience in (an academic area, a skill)
- Have (experiences)
- Increase knowledge about (a topic, an area)
- Learn (about something, that something is true, how to do something)
- Participate in (activities)
- Practice (doing something)
- Understand (knowledge, how to do something)
- Undertake (activities)
Note that in the second list above, "understand" is a perfectly reasonable example of a curricular goal but is not a good example of a learning outcome because it is not the kind of verb that demonstrates clearly what a student knows or what the student can do. A student would demonstrate that she understands a piece of knowledge by (for example) explaining it to someone else, and a student would demonstrate that he understands how to read a paragraph in a non-native language by (for example) summarizing the paragraph aloud in English without an English translation in front of him. In these cases, the right verbs for the learning outcome level would be "explain" and "summarize."
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In the below examples of department/program goals, notice that terms such as "mission," "vision," and "purpose" are used as well as "goal;" the examples are still examples of goals (rather than learning outcomes). Two words used in the example from Religion could also make good learning outcomes: "analyze" and "interpret."
Anthropology
We offer an expansive outlook on human cultures, providing multiple opportunities for hands-on anthropological fieldwork, including field-based courses and lengthy field trips.
Art History
The primary goal of the concentration in art history is to introduce a wide variety of liberal arts students to the achievements of both western and eastern art and to develop their sensitivity to the visual environment. The study of art history incorporates intellectual, social, economic, and political history, thus offering a vivid and tangible entrée to the history and achievements of human culture…Our program is structured to ensure that our majors have a general knowledge of art history and are capable of thoughtful analysis of the visual language of works of art.
Chemistry/Biochemistry
Mission: To enhance our understanding of the chemical sciences and their connections to the modern world through teaching, research, and service. Vision: Students and Faculty join to advance lifelong learning, stimulate intellectual and ethical growth, and foster a climate of mutual respect among scientists and non-scientists…
Feminist and Gender Studies
Feminist & Gender Studies fosters inquiry into structures and modes of power as they are mediated by gender, sexuality, race and ethnicity, class, nation and citizenship, age, and ability. Through teaching, scholarship, and service, we study and develop critical interdisciplinary and feminist theories and practices in collaboration with artists, activists, and scholars at Colorado College and beyond.
Religion
The purpose of the academic study of religion is to analyze and interpret religious beliefs and practices in their cultural contexts and historical development. The discipline of religious studies requires critical reflection on ideas about the nature of reality, ideal forms of human society, rituals of individual and societal identity, and sources of authority in personal and social morality.
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