in which evidence of their growing understanding and capacity will be collected. 15
The purpose of student-centered learning objectives is to develop concrete benchmarks for students relative to content. These objectives, developed by academics and practitioners from across the profession and validated by a separate group of faculty and professional peers, can assist with not only determining what a student should be able to do relative to content, but also how to assess whether the student has acquired the necessary skills under the correct context.
Each of the chapters in Part One of this book contains a section devoted to student-centered learning objectives. These objectives are designed to outline what the student should be able to do relative to the particular chapter topic. Practitioners are encouraged to examine each of these outcomes to determine their own effectiveness relative to the topic area. Whether working in the field of personal financial planning or a related discipline, practitioners can benefit from a better understanding of their own effectiveness relative to these important concepts in personal financial planning. It may be that if the practitioner self-identifies areas of specific weakness in these objectives, he or she may decide to enroll in a continuing education program that can assist in improving efficacy relative to this topic.
Students enrolled in personal financial planner preparation programs are encouraged to examine these learning objectives not only to determine their own levels of preparation for entering the field of personal financial planning, but also to better understand the requirements associated with their particular programs of study. Although each program is different, the topics contained in this book have been determined by faculty and practitioners to be integral to personal financial planning.
Faculty teaching in personal financial planning courses or related fields of study are encouraged to explore these objectives to determine appropriate program and course outcomes, learning experiences, theoretical content, and assessment measures. Some faculty teaching in related fields may have students enrolled in their courses who aspire to become personal financial planners. Although some faculty may not be personal financial planners themselves, their content is critical to preparing future practitioners and thus necessary in the program of study. Faculty in these related disciplines are encouraged to examine these outcomes to learn how their content directly relates to personal financial planning and perhaps explore ways of making their course work more directly applicable to financial planning if at all possible.
Higher education in many countries is evolving toward a more student-centered approach to instruction, meaning that it is no longer the objective of a unit, course, or program of study to merely cover a list of topics relative to a specific discipline. Rather, the success of instruction is dependent upon whether students are able to achieve at a predetermined benchmark relative to a unit, course, or program of study.
Assessment has become a driving factor in higher education reform around the world. Institutions, and therefore faculty, are asked to document student achievement relative to concepts and subject matter. The development, identification, and utilization of these objectives provide a template for faculty when developing student assessment tools. These objectives can assist not only in determining student achievement and placement, but also in assessing instructional effectiveness at the unit and program levels.
IN CLASS 16
One of the general objectives in education is to facilitate learning at higher cognitive levels. The idea here is that if learning takes place where the student is applying and creating, then these new skills will be generalizable beyond just the context of that given skill. If the learner is only remembering and regurgitating facts, then he or she may remember them long enough to take a test or recite something, but forget them or have difficulty applying them to other contexts.
Bloom’s Taxonomy17 was developed not only as an effective measurement tool for student learning, but also as a way to develop common language regarding learning goals and curriculum development across multiple instructors relative to a given subject area.18 Bloom’s Taxonomy also provides the opportunity to explore the depth to which a given subject area can be studied. Updated in 2002, Bloom’s Taxonomy consists of the following levels relative to the cognitive domain:19
Remember: Remembering, the least complex of the categories, is a process of storing and retrieving knowledge from long-term memory through processes such as recognizing or recalling relevant facts or attributes.
Understand: The next category, understanding, involves determining the meaning of instructional messages and communication, including oral, written, and graphic messages. This can include classifying, summarizing, or explaining a given text or communication.
Apply: Applying is the process of using or carrying out a procedure in a given situation. This can involve executing or implementing a system or procedure for a new context or set of facts.
Analyze: Analyzing involves breaking material down, identifying how its constituent parts relate to one another, and identifying how these parts relate to an overall structure or purpose, including differentiating and organizing the material.
Evaluate: Evaluating is the process of taking criteria and standards and using them to make judgments or assessments. This involves drawing on a set of criteria to check or critique material.
Create: Creating involves the formation of an original product or a novel, coherent whole by combining elements or putting them together. This includes generating, planning, or producing new material.
The In Class sections of Chapters 2 to 70 note the learning experiences and assessment possibilities for facilitating higher-order cognitive thinking in the financial planning classroom. These tables should assist faculty in developing class activities and assessment avenues that further higher-order cognitive thinking in financial planning preparation programs. These charts are designed for all program types and delivery methods.
BLOOM’S TAXONOMY
*This note will mark activities that are appropriate for on-campus course.
**This note will mark activities that are appropriate for both on-campus and distance courses.
It is important to note that the first two levels of Bloom’s Taxonomy have generally been omitted in this book. Remembering and understanding are common actions in any classroom or online learning platform and would not be as useful to the reader. The suggested student assessment avenue may consist of both formal and informal assessments.
PROFESSIONAL PRACTICE CAPABILITIES
Almost any individual working within a given profession or occupation, or any other activity for that matter, strives to take the journey from novice to expert. The path to expertise is more than mere education and repetition; rather, it requires individuals to move from a reliance on rules and principles to contextual experiences and to change their perception or understanding of a given context or situation from bits of information to a composite whole.20 The Dreyfus Model of Skill Acquisition is a five-step model that outlines the path from novice to expert relative to these two paradigms. The stages are:
Stage One – Novice: This first stage of skill acquisition is characterized by the novice becoming familiar with a set of features that are recognizable without any experience. These features can be described as context-free
Susan Toohey,
The “In Class” sections of the chapters are based on the revised Bloom’s Taxonomy, as presented in D. R. Krathwohl, “A Revision of Bloom’s Taxonomy: An Overview,”
B. Bloom, ed., and M. D. Engelhart, E. J. Furst, W. H. Hill, and D. R. Krathwohl,
Krathwohl, “A Revision of Bloom’s Taxonomy.”
Ibid.
Stuart E. Dreyfus, “The Five-Stage Model of Adult Skill Acquisition,”
