What makes a good learning intention?

What tools can you use to find out what your students really learned?

Learning intentions should be important, clear and student friendly.

Important

An important learning intention:

• focuses on a concept that is important for students to know; and

• applies to several context.

When a learning intention is context-free, it illustrates to students that there are many reasons for learning the concept.

Clear

A clear learning intention focuses on what students will learn, not what students will do.

The teacher needs to identify what students should understand, know or be able to do by the end of the lesson.

It should reflect the learning you expect students to achieves in one lesson.

Student-friendly

A student-friendly learning intention:

• is written in language that students will understand;

• uses words that centre on student learning.

For example, a learning intention begins with "We Are Learning To" (WALT ) is not the same as the syllabus outcomes.