Learning outcomes

Constructive alignment

Following the learning about epistemologies and pedagogies earlier in this module, the next step is to focus on how to interweave Indigenous approaches in your teaching practices. For this, we need to first remember the importance of constructive alignment for curriculum development. As The Centre for the Advancement of Teaching and Learning, University of Manitoba explains:

“When matching goals, teaching strategies, and assessment tools, the instructor should consider:

•  What are the ‘desired’ outcomes?
•  What teaching methods require students to behave in ways that are likely to achieve those outcomes?
•  What assessment tasks will tell us if the actual outcomes match those that are intended or desired?”

For a quick review of Constructive Alignment, visit The Centre for the Advancement of Teaching and Learning, University of Manitoba.

To advance our decolonization and Indigenization efforts in curriculum design and development, we need to apply the concept of constructive alignment to all aspects of a course. According to Pulling Together: A guide for Curriculum Developers, we can use the following questions to guide our work as educators:

• Learning outcomes: Do the learning outcomes emphasize cognitive, emotional, physical, and spiritual development? Is there room for personalization, group and individual learning goals, and self-development?
• Learning activities: Have you included learning activities that are land-based, narrative, intergenerational, relational, experiential, and/or multimodal (relying on auditory, visual, physical, or tactile modes of learning)?
• Assessment: Is the assessment holistic in nature? Are there opportunities for self-assessment that allow students to reflect on their own development?

In addition, it is also important to consider the role of the academic course in our communities, both Indigenous and non-Indigenous:

• Goals: Does the course goal include holistic development of the learner? If applicable, does the course benefit Indigenous people or communities?
• Relationships: Are there opportunities for learning in community, intergenerational learning, and learning in relationship to the land?

Content adapted from Integrating Indigenous Epistemologies and Pedagogies into Curriculum Design and Development from Pulling Together: A Guide for Curriculum Developers.

From Bloom to the Medicine Wheel

Benjamin Bloom’s Learning Outcomes Taxonomy has been a common reference for educators when designing learning outcomes for their courses. As the Centre for Teaching Excellence, University of Waterloo explains, for Bloom, there are three domains:

• The cognitive domain is focused on intellectual skills such as critical thinking, problem solving, and creating a knowledge base.
• The affective domain focuses on the attitudes, values, interests, and appreciation of learners.
• The psychomotor domain encompasses the ability of learners to physically accomplish tasks and perform movement and skills.

For a review of Bloom’s Taxonomy, visit the Centre for Teaching Excellence, University of Waterloo.

However, to further support decolonization and Indigenization in course development, and aligned with the Medicine Wheel, Marcella LaFever (University of the Fraser Valley) suggests “a four-domain framework for developing course outcome statements that will serve all students, with a focus on better supporting the educational empowerment of Indigenous students. The framework expands the three domains of learning, pioneered by Bloom to a four-domain construction based on the four quadrants of the Medicine Wheel, a teaching/learning framework that has widespread use in the Indigenous communities of North America (Native American, First Nation, Metis, Inuit, etc.).” In her paper, she expands “On the cognitive (mental), psychomotor (physical) and affective (emotional) domains to add the fourth quadrant, spiritual, as being essential for balance in curricular design that supports students in their learning goals.”

You can review LaFever’s paper, Switching from Bloom to the Medicine Wheel: creating learning outcomes that support Indigenous ways of knowing in post-secondary education, especially page 11, where the author unpacks the levels and verbs recommended for the Spiritual domain, as shown in the Teaching and learning application below.

As we consider the importance of the Spiritual domain, engage with the following video titled “Truth and Reconciliation – Language at RRC Polytech”.

This 5-minute and 7-seconds video produced by the Emerging Media and Production department at Red River College Polytechnic is part of a three-part Truth and Reconciliation series on local Indigenous cultural themes and practices that are embedded at Red River College Polytechnic. During the video, the participants reflected on the sense of belonging they felt in this Indigenous language course, which was very aligned with Spiritual levels of being Honoured, Valued, Connected, Empowered, and Self-Actualized.