Using learning outcomes in dental education

Explicitly-stated learning outcomes are an expected, integral part of contemporary under- and postgraduate learning programmes in dentistry. Writing learning outcomes, however, can be challenging and undertaken with a risk of not understanding what is meant by them and what well-constructed outcomes are meant to do. Written badly, learning outcomes will not help capture the goals of educational interventions or, perhaps worse, they end up as nothing more than a complex, frustrating hoop-jumping exercise in both their conception and utilisation. Underlying misconceptions of the purpose of learning outcomes or how to develop them are likely contributors to this situation. We would argue that if one understands the background, construct and intended purpose of learning outcomes we are more likely to write them so that they can actually be applied and therefore used effectively.