A learning intention for a lesson or series of lessons is a statement, created by the teacher, that describes clearly what the teacher wants the students to know, understand, and be able to do as a result of specific learning and teaching activities. Clear learning intentions should help students focus not just on the task or activity taking place but on what they are learning. Learning intentions are always linked to one or more learning outcomes in the specification.

(NCCA, 2019)

Success criteria are linked to learning intentions and therefore to the learning outcomes. They are developed by the teacher and/or the student and describe what success looks like. They help the teacher and student to make judgements about the quality of student learning.

(NCCA, 2019)

Success criteria are specific, concrete, measurable statements that describe what success looks like when the learning intention is reached. It is important that both the learning intention and the success criteria are communicated with the students. When success criteria are communicated clearly, and teachers and students are actively looking for evidence of learning, learners understand the importance of the lesson.

(Adapted from Hattie, Fisher et al., 2017)

Success Criteria can be

• a series of steps.

• a sequence of instructions.

• a visual aide memoire.

• a list of options.

• questions.

• a list of remember to prompts.

Teachers share and co-create success criteria with students so that they can assess their own learning through self-assessment and peer assessment, and identify areas for improvement and strategies to achieve improvement.

(Looking at Our Schools, 2016)

It might seem quicker and easier to simply give students a list of success criteria linked to the learning intention! But here are some reasons below to engage students in co-constructing success criteria.

The impact of co-constructing success criteria

• students become more independent.

• students have more ownership over their learning and ongoing evaluation.

• there is higher achievement when students have seen good examples and can follow or choose from the success they have generated.

• older students can teach younger students more effectively.

• higher achievers can teach lower achievers more effectively.

• teachers have greater assurance that the students understand the criteria.

(Hattie & Clarke, 2019:P.66)

There are many effective strategies which can be used for co-constructing success criteria. 12 strategies are shown below which you could use with your students in the classroom.

(Hattie & Clarke, 2019:P.66-68.)