Learning Objectives

Learning objectives are the goals of instruction, focusing on specific skills and competencies as outlined by an instructor, a program, or an institution.

Learning outcomes are the “observable and measurable terms” of “what a student is able to do as a result of completing a learning experience” (DePaul University, “What are Learning Outcomes?”).

The History program has defined eight learning objectives in three distinct categories: historical knowledge, historical thinking, and historical skills.

These learning objectives are considered the core of the history curriculum. Instructors in each course choose objectives from each of the three categories to structure their course around. Through learning outcomes, instructors indicate how their students will demonstrate competencies in these learning objectives.

The History program developed and modified these learning objectives to align with the American Historical Association’s “History Tuning Project.” This project sought to “describe the skills, knowledge, and habits of mind that students develop in history courses and degree programs.” In 2024, after internal assessment as well as with advice from the USU Office of Analysis, Assessment, and Accreditation, the History Assessment Committee modified these learning objectives. We have revised them to fit within best teaching practices and aligned them with Bloom’s Taxonomy of Learning to demonstrate how the History program’s learning objectives scales student learning from low-level cognitive exercises to high-level cognitive tasks.

In the guide below, each of the eight learning objectives contain more specific historical learning outcomes with further examples that may be included on instructors' syllabi, tying them to assessments. This is not meant to be a prescriptive document but a guide to help align our program objectives and outcomes along each level of our undergraduate curriculum.

Historical Knowledge (Bloom’s Taxonomy: Remember & Understand)

  • Students will gain knowledge of and competency in a wide range of historical information.
    • Students will identify key events over time and across regions.
    • Students will describe the influence of political ideologies, economic structures, social organization, cultural perceptions, religious movements, and natural environments across history.
    • Students will discuss how intersectional factors such as race, gender, class, ethnicity, religion, and region influence historical narratives.
  • Students will explain historical continuity as well as historical change.
    • Students will express how change occurs over time in specific contexts.
    • Students will identify how historical continuity may persist in political, social, economic, and/or religious structures over time.

Historical Thinking (Bloom’s Taxonomy: Apply, Analyze, Evaluate)

  • Students will engage with the pastness of the past.
    • Students will demonstrate how people have existed, acted, and thought in particular time periods and regions through critical engagement with primary sources.
    • Students will question what influence the past has on the present through comparisons of historical time periods with the present.
  • Students will analyze the complex nature of past experiences.
    • Students will interpret the complexity and diversity of situations, events, and past mentalities through selection and analysis of primary and secondary sources.
  • Students will dissect the complex and problematic nature of the historical record.
    • Students will examine a wide range of viewpoints throughout history and of history-writers through textual analyses of primary and secondary sources.
    • Students will compare competing historical narratives in both primary and secondary sources.
    • Students will challenge the arguments of historical inevitability through discussion, argumentation, and writing assignments.
    • Students will analyze the complex relationships between cause and effect while also considering multiple causation.

Historical Skills (Bloom’s Taxonomy: All Levels)

  • Students will demonstrate skills in critical thinking and reading.
    • Students will develop advanced reading comprehension.
    • Students will evaluate debates among historians.
    • Students will differentiate between historical fact and historical interpretation.
    • Students will assess the credibility of primary and secondary sources.
  • Students will achieve proficiency in ethical historical research methods and skills.
    • Students will formulate historical research questions.
    • Students will locate and select historical data from a variety of sources.
    • Students will identify gaps in available records.
    • Students will articulate current and past historiographical trends.
  • Students will illustrate their ability to construct historical arguments through the completion of a 20-25-page senior capstone paper.
    • Students will construct analytical thesis statements/historical arguments.
    • Students will support their historical arguments and interpretations with historical evidence from a variety of primary and secondary sources.
    • Students will display their knowledge of the Chicago Manual of Style.