“We’re being taught about what e.g. ADHD and Autism are, but we’re not taught how to interact with people who have this and how we can make sure we don’t discriminate against them. I would love to learn about this.”

A learning objective describes what will be covered in a course and thus what students should know/or be able to do at the end of a course. Learning objectives can be formulated on different levels. They can be described on the programme level and be incorporated as learning trajectories (Dutch: leerlijn), but also on a smaller scale on the course and class level. 

As opposed to a goal, learning objectives are more specific and described using observable terms (see for instance Bloom Taxonomy Krathwohl, D. R. (2002). A revision of Bloom's taxonomy: An overview. Theory into practice, 41(4), 212-218. as a framework that can be supportive of writing such concrete learning objectives). When formulating learning objectives, it can help to take a step back and ask the question: which skills, knowledge and attitude should students have after they have completed this course? 

This can also help when formulating learning objectives for inclusive and diverse education specifically. The nature of these learning objectives could be quite broad. Reflective questions that could be asked are for instance: What knowledge should students have about your specific area of teaching to prepare them for a diverse society? Or: what skills should students have to have fruitful collaborations with fellow students with different cultural backgrounds? 

When outlining the learning objectives for your course, it is essential to make sure that the content taught, the instructional strategies used, and the assessments administered, are aligned to be conducive to student learning. Often, diversity and inclusion aspects are included in the learning objectives but will not be a part of the assessment of the course. Or inversely, changes are made in the content taught (e.g., literature offering diverse perspectives) but are not reflected in the learning objectives. Having all elements aligned within your course can be referred to as constructive alignment Biggs, J. (2014). Constructive alignment in university teaching. HERDSA Review of Higher Education, 1, 5-22.

A student finds it confusing that though they studied literature from multiple perspectives in class and they feel like they should study it for the assessment, this is not referred to in the course’s learning objectives. This causes them to be confused and frustrated as to what is expected from them.  

Tools

A good exercise to make sure that all components of your classroom curriculum and teaching are aligned is to revisit the design of your course backwards. This means that after you have articulated all your learning objectives first and one at a time, you need to check if the learning objectives are represented in the course content, if the instructional strategies used are beneficial to the learning objective and if the assessment used captures the learning objective outlined. Helpful information on how this can be done for courses in general is constructive alignment Biggs, J. (2014). Constructive alignment in university teaching. HERDSA Review of Higher Education, 1, 5-22.