Learning Intentions and Success Criteria

What are they? And why are they so important?

Success criteria are related to learning intentions, so let’s begin our explanation there. Learning intentions are, essentially, the intended learning goals, or outcomes, for a lesson or activity. For example, a learning intention I might have for a year 7 class is for the students to understand the names of different camera shots and angles, prior to a film study. Obviously, I would make it clear to my students that this is the hoped-for outcome of the lesson. I say ‘hoped for’, because as we all know, sometimes lessons don’t go according to plan.

Now, it’s important for my students to know and understand when they have – or sometimes have not – achieved this learning intention. As an educator, I might assess this both formally and informally over the course of the lesson, through questioning, completion of activities, and through the final product. To foster a sense of achievement, though, and eventually a sense of agency over their learning journey, it’s imperative that the students are able to see their progress for themselves.

This is where success criteria enter the scene.

They are, essentially, the measures by which we might assess how well the learning intention has been achieved. To further embellish the above example, I might ask my year 7’s to help me draft the list of criteria, however, for today’s purposes, I’ll do it myself:

• Students can label sample images with the correct name for the shot or angle.

• Students can show their understanding by taking photographs of their own, and labelling these.

This is obviously a simplistic set of success criteria – the more complex and nuanced the learning intentions, the more criteria we might have to meet. Additionally, I’ve crafted a generic set of success criteria - in reality, this might be tailored to suit individual students and their own learning styles and goals. For example, some students might struggle to achieve the intentions above, whilst for some, it may be too simple. So, we might have success criteria and opportunities for extension as well. 

It’s very much like SMART goals – knowing where we’re going, and how and why, is imperative in the learning journey. It’s how learners can truly achieve learning success and, eventually, take responsibility for their own pathways and education.

So, consider, for your next learning activity, whether it’s in a classroom or at home, what are your learning intentions and what are your success criteria?