Learning objective and assessment linkage: Its contribution to meaningful student learning

Abstract

Any instructional activity begins with introducing the lesson topic and learning objectives to the students. Learning objectives are the expected behavioral outcomes of the students at the end of a certain instructional process, and assessment is the process of gathering evidence or information about the students' learning to check whether or not the students achieved the stated learning objectives. Before beginning a certain instruction, the teacher has to communicate the learning objectives to the students for various reasons. But there are often gaps in integrating learning objectives with assessment at different education levels. To have meaningful student learning, assessment and learning objectives should be linked. Therefore, the objective of this review article is to clearly outline and discuss the link between learning objectives and assessment and its contribution to students' learning. This study is a review of different literatures in the area of teaching, learning, and assessment. The resources included in the review were identified by manual searches from online databases and library catalogues. From the review, it is concluded that writing clear and meaningful learning objectives is a necessary skill that teachers need to have in the academic environment and the proper linkage of learning objectives and assessment plays a significant role in the success of students' learning.