Blog 2

Blog Two describe what the difference is between training and education as it pertains to assessment.


Training involves skills to perform tasks that require some degree of practice, repetition, or skill. The skills required for training are essential to the function of some tangible item. Therefore, training is more a hands on or practical application. Students in training programs may use and be required to use their taught skills in real world situations, with people, and have a specific, measurable outcome. Assessing training then can have clearly measurable outcomes for the instructor. With training, the skills can be repeated over and over until mastery is recognized and achieved.

Education, on the other hand, builds cognitive skills so students may address problems that are as of yet, unforeseen. The book describes it well by saying, “the content domain…is broad, only a sampling of content associated with the domain is learned, and a small portion of that which is learned is actually assessed (Oosterhof, Conrad, & Ely 2008). For instance I can teach the same MLA skills every year but in which manner and how I will assess can always be different. Essentially what I’m teaching are skills that will be utilized at some future date and cannot immediately be ascertained by mere observation or pencil and paper assessment. Education is more abstract than training. Training is more concrete and perhaps easier to measure than education.

Blog One

A learning outcome is what the instructor would like the student to have shown mastery in. It is the outcome of the learning or the result. So, if I want my students to take a source and utilize that source to prove their thesis statement then my outcome would be for students to use a source, paraphrase, summarize, and quote source material. The learning outcomes have a strong verb as to what action the student will take to complete that learning outcome. This verb will guide the students, and the teacher, into meeting the outcome.

The performance objective are the skills that I can actually see. It is the product the learner has used the verbs to create. So, my students will summarize, paraphrase, and quote. All verbs. The performance is what I want them to perform at or near. For my students, I need 100% accuracy in MLA formatting and writing skills. Any deviation from 100% would indicate that the student did not acquire the skill and therefore did not meet the learning objective or the performance outcome. With using sources in writing it’s an all or nothing outcome most of the time.