Learning Objectives in Physical Education
Learning objectives are ‘statements that describe what a learner will be able to do as a result of learning’.
Learning objectives should state what ‘most’ students will be able to do by the end of the lesson/unit of work/scheme of work. They should be specific and not be restricted to lower level cognitive skills. Students should be able to evaluate their performance/progress against the objective(s) without the teachers input (child friendly).
It includes three main points:
- To know...
- To understand...
- To be able to...
The ‘Know’ Objective
This objective states what students should ‘know’ by the end of the lesson. The objective should be met in the starter for students to progress to higher learning skills as a basis of knowledge for the lesson.
An example might be to know three key teaching points/rules of a serve in badminton.
The ‘Understand’ Objective
This objective extends the learners to understand the skill in a context. It makes learning ‘deeper’, rather than just to ‘Know’.
The ‘To Be Able To’ Objective
Is linked to the differentiated outcomes and assessment criteria where students demonstrate their ability to meet throughout the lesson. These should be linked to the Blooms verbs to differentiate outcomes for students.
Here is an example of the learning objectives for a table tennis lesson.
- To know how to perform an accurate and controlled backhand push - To understand why it is important to adjust the length and angle of the shot - To be able to demonstrate the backhand push during practice (4A) during competitive game situations (5C) with backspin and/or topspin (6B)
Good practice would be to highlight keywords on the board for students to use during the lesson. Maybe during a plenary linked to Literacy in PE and for students to demonstrate their understanding during conversations with teachers and peers – or a written sentence on a mini whiteboard to justify peer/self assessment
