Taxonomy Of Educational

Instructional Objectives

v  Types of instructional objectives - taxonomies of educational objectives,

v  Factors that influence the planning of behavioural objectives

v  Formulation of instructional objectives.

 

Objectives

Reading this unit, the student will able to

1)      Understand the blooms taxonomy of educational objectives

2)      Employ the taxonomy of instructional objectives

3)      Write instructional objectives as well as specification accurately while planning the lesson

 

Introduction

Educational objectives describe the goals toward which the education process is directed or the learning that is to result from instruction. When drawn up by an education authority or professional organization, objectives are usually called standards. Taxonomies are classification systems based on an organizational scheme. In this case, a set of carefully defined terms, organized from simple to complex and from concrete to abstract, provide a framework of categories into which one may classify educational goals. Such schemes can:

ü  Provide a common language about educational goals that can bridge subject matter and grade levels.

ü  Serve as a touchstone for specifying the meaning of broad educational goals for the classroom.

ü  Help to determine the congruence of goals, classroom activities and assessments.

ü  Provide a panorama of the range of possible educational goals against which the limited breadth and depth of any particular educational curriculum may be contrasted

 

Benjamin Bloom conceived the idea of creating a taxonomy of educational objectives in the 1950s. Bloom sought to reduce the extensive labour of test development by exchanging test items among universities. He believed this could be facilitated by developing a carefully defined framework into which items measuring the same objective could be classified. Examiners and testing specialists from across the country were assembled into a working group that met periodically over several years. The result was a framework with six major categories and many subcategories for the most common objectives of classroom instruction.

 

Instructional Objectives 

Education is a process of bringing desirable behavioural changes in individuals. It helps the individuals to identify their capabilities and potential. Classroom instructions and activities are the gateways to this process. Hence a teacher who deals with any subject should clearly plan his objectives of a particular instruction. The pre-determined learning outcome of instruction is termed instructional objectives. More clearly, instructional objectives are the specific or immediate goal which is obtainable as a result of instruction or through classroom interaction.

Teaching objectives also refer to short term goals or immediate targets or assertions about observable changes in learners, which educators wish to observe as a consequence of instruction. Additionally, teaching objectives are what the teacher hopes his or her learners will be able to achieve by the time a lesson or lessons end.

This is considered as the target of a teacher for a specific lesson or a topic. Learning/ teaching outcomes of a classroom are designed by the instructional objectives. Without formulating instructional objectives, instruction become aimless or target less and wastage of time and effort of both teachers and students. Instructional objectives must be planned to develop different domains of the learner.

Characteristics of Good Teaching Objectives

Because instructional objectives specify exactly what is supposed to be learned, they are helpful to the teacher as well as the learner throughout the learning process and are invaluable in the evaluation process. A well-written objective should meet the criteria of describing a learning outcome, be student-oriented, and be observable.

Ø  A well-written objective must describe a learning outcome. It should not describe a learning activity. Learning activities are important in planning and guiding instruction, but they are not to be confused with instructional objectives.

Ø  A student-oriented objective focuses on the learner, not on the teacher. It describes what the learner will be expected to be able to do. It must not describe a teacher activity. It may be helpful to both the teacher and the student to know what the teacher is going to do, but teacher activities are also not to be confused with instructional objectives.

Ø  If an instructional objective is not observable, it leads to unclear expectations, and it will be difficult to determine whether or not it had been reached. The key to writing observable objectives is to use verbs that are observable and lead to a well-defined action implied by that verb. Verbs such as “to know,” “to understand,” “to enjoy,” “to appreciate,” “to realize,” and “to value” are vague and not observable. Verbs such as “to identify,” “to list,” “to select,” “to compute,” “to predict,” and “to analyze” are explicit and describe observable actions or actions that lead to observable products.

 

To be useful for instruction, an objective must not only be well written, but it also must be sequentially appropriate; be attainable within a reasonable amount of time and be developmentally appropriate. For an objective to be sequentially appropriate, it must occur in an appropriate place in the instructional sequence. All prerequisite objectives must already have been attained. Nothing thwarts the learning process more than having learners trying to accomplish an objective before they have learned the necessary prerequisites. This is why continuous assessment of student progress is so important.

A useful objective is attainable within a reasonable time. If an instructional objective takes students an inordinately long time to accomplish, it is either sequentially inappropriate, or it is too broad, relying on the accomplishment of several outcomes or skills rather than a single outcome or skill. An objective should set expectations for a single learning outcome and not a cluster of them. Developmentally appropriate objectives set expectations for students that are well within their level of intellectual, social, language, or moral development.

Discussion on Bloom’s taxonomy is necessary to understand the different domains of the learner.

Blooms Taxonomy of Educational Objectives 

The word taxonomy which is derived from the Greek word ‘taxis’ which connotes systematic classification. Prof. Benjamin Bloom developed and classified the domains of educational objectives. Bloom (1956) presented his taxonomy related to the cognitive domain, emphasizing the hierarchy of cognitive process in attaining knowledge and development of thinking. Later Krathwhol (1964) introduced the affective domain, and Simpson (1966) developed psychomotor domain. They described the hierarchical development of the three domains of the learner through instruction. This classification objective is known as Bloom’s taxonomy of educational objectives.

 

Classification of Blooms taxonomy

1.      Cognitive domain- Knowledge field

2.      Affective domain- feeling field

3.      Psychomotor domain-doing field

​Every educational activity must be planned to develop all this domain of the learner. Hence these three domains are mutually interrelated and interdependent also.

 

 

The cognitive domain deals with the intellectual aspect of cognition. It concerned with sensation, perception and application of knowledge. The hierarchical development of cognitive domain is discussed below.

        i.            ​Knowledge: Acquisition of knowledge is the lowest level in the cognitive domain. It includes the ability of students to recall and remember the information learned in the classrooms. Recall and recognition are the specifications of this instructional objective. 

      ii.            Comprehension: It is the second level of the cognitive domain. It is the meaningful recall and recognition of the learned content. Here the learner could understand and explain what he learned in the classroom in his own language. Identifying relations, classification of objects, explanations, comparisons, translation etc. are the specification of this level. 

    iii.            Application: In the third level, learners can apply or use the knowledge which is acquired and comprehended during the first two levels. It is the ability to apply the acquired knowledge through instruction in real-life situations. Establishing a new relationship, formulating a hypothesis, predictions are some specification of this level. 

    iv.            Analysis: Analysis is the meaningful breakdown of the materials into its various components and to identify the interrelationship between the elements and find out how they are organized and related. Specification of this level includes the analysis of elements, analysis of the relationship, analysis of organizational principles. 

      v.            Synthesis: Synthesis is the mental ability of the learner to integrate the acquired, comprehended, applied and analyzed knowledge into a comprehensive whole. It involves the ability to give a new shape or structure to statements or procedures. 

    vi.            Evaluation: This is the highest level of the cognitive domain. Students could evaluate an object, person, a theory or a principle if only they are par with all other lower hierarchy in the cognitive domain. It is the ability to judge the value of a material, aspects, methods, principles, theory, philosophy and so forth for a given purpose. At this level s/he could perform personal viewpoint about the information s/he synthesized.

​

Instructional Objectives in Affective Domain

 The affective domain is related to the development of the heart and mind of the child. It includes the areas of emotions, feelings, interest, attitude, appreciation and values. The teacher should correlate the development of cognitive domain with the affective domain. Hence the teacher should ensure the development of the affective domain in his instructional objectives of the classroom instruction. Bloom & Krathwohl (1964) introduced the following hierarchy for the affective domain.

​

        i.            Receiving:  In the basic level, the learner is sensitized to the existence of a certain phenomenon and stimuli. S/he is willing to receive the information wholeheartedly by exhibiting awareness on the stimuli and become conscious of a particular person, principle, philosophy, incidents etc.

      ii.            Responding: Effective reception prepares the learner to respond seriously. As a result of receiving some good message from the first hierarchy, the learner tries to respond to the situation positively. For example, students show kindness towards elders and weaker people, hold honest behaviour in day to day life situations etc. 

    iii.            Valuing: By responding in good ways, the students set guidelines for their behaviour. Accepting values, preference for values, commitment to values are the important behavioural changes in this level. For example, students develop a positive attitude towards non-violent behaviour, truthfulness, honesty etc. 

    iv.            Organization: Student builds a system of value at this level. Value conflict and value crisis are resolved. Through organizing different values, students can develop their own code of conduct and standard of public life in society. For example, students identify the inseparability of the values like non-violence, truthfulness and tolerance of Ghanaian tradition. They show dislike towards corruption and violence in the country and think against to work. 

      v.            Characterization: This is the highest level of the internalization process. Values are imbibed and form part of the lifestyle of the individual. For example, the non-violence value becomes the philosophy of the individual. They will not be ready to compromise on their philosophy at any stage as well as ready to work for justice even though they are alone.

​

Instructional Objective for Psychomotor Domain 

Psychomotor domain deals with the action or performance level. This domain includes muscular action and neuromuscular coordination. Educational objectives of this domain aim to develop proficiency in performing certain acts. Simpson (1966) presented the psychomotor domain as follows. 

        i.            Perception: Perception is the first level in the psychomotor domain. It consists of the process of becoming aware of objects, qualities or relation through sense organs. 

      ii.            Set: In this second hierarchy students make preparatory adjustment of readiness for a particular kind of action or experience. Mental and physical set for action is performed here. 

    iii.            Guided response: It is the overt behavioural act of a student under the guidance of the teacher. Students initially perform an act which is perceived and set through earlier levels. It includes imitation of teachers, elders, parents, and trial and error activities in attaining writing, reading skill etc. For example; Student imitates the writing style of his teacher to write letter ‘A’ and repeat many times to learn how to write letter ‘A’. 

    iv.            Mechanism: In this level, a student shows progress in performing the act through imitation and trial and error. The student learned to write a letter ‘A’ by imitating his teacher and through trial and error activity. Now, s/he can write letter ‘A’ at his/her will. Here learned response has become habitual. It is a microanalysis in which each step in the mechanism is properly examined and drilled. 

      v.            Complex Overt Response: In this level, the student can perform a complex motor act which required a complex movement pattern. In this hierarchy students attain a high degree of skill, and the act can be carried out smoothly and efficiently. In this level, students could perform the act without any hesitation. Fine muscular coordination and a great deal of ease in performing act are the peculiarities of this level. Here student able to write many words easily and simply within a short period, ability to run, walk, jump and talk easily also comes under this category.

    vi.            Adaptation and Originating: This is the highest level. Here the student is adapted with the ability to do an act which is acquired through the above steps. Now spontaneously s/he can perform the act with accuracy. Moreover, s/he can originate a new pattern of action or style in doing the activity. 

 

 

Bloom’s Revised Taxonomy:  Cognitive, Affective, and Psychomotor

 

Bloom’s Revised Taxonomy-Cognitive Domain

Lorin Anderson, a former student of Bloom, revisited the cognitive domain in the learning taxonomy in the mid-nineties and made some changes, with perhaps the two most prominent ones being 1) changing the names in the six categories from noun to verb forms, and 2) slightly rearranging them. This new taxonomy reflects a more active form of thinking and is perhaps more accurate.

Category	Examples	Key Words [Verbs]
Remembering: Recall previously learned information.	Recite a policy. Quote prices from memory to a customer. Knows the safety rules.	Defines, describes, identifies, knows, labels, lists, matches, names, outlines, recalls, recognizes, reproduces, selects, states.
Understanding: Comprehending the meaning, translation, interpolation, and interpretation of instructions and problems. State a problem in one’s own words.	Rewrites the principles of test writing. Explain in one’s own words the steps for performing a complex task. Translates an equation into a computer spreadsheet.	Comprehends, converts, defends, distinguishes, estimates, explains, extends, generalizes, gives an example, infers, interprets, paraphrases, predicts, rewrites, summarizes, translates.
Applying: Use a concept in a new situation or unprompted use of an abstraction. Applies what was learned in the classroom into novel situations in the workplace.	Use a manual to calculate an employee’s vacation time. Apply the laws of statistics to evaluate the reliability of a written test.	Applies, changes compute, constructs, demonstrates, discovers, manipulates, modifies, operates, predicts, prepares, produces, relates, shows solves, uses.
Analyzing: Separates material or concepts into component parts so that its organizational structure may be understood. Distinguishes between facts and inferences.	Troubleshoot a piece of equipment by using logical deduction. Recognize logical fallacies in reasoning. Gathers information from a department and selects the required tasks for training.	Analyzes, breaks down, compares, contrasts, diagrams, deconstructs, differentiates, discriminates, distinguishes, identifies, illustrates, infers, outlines, relates, selects, separates.
Evaluating: Make judgments about the value of ideas or materials.	Select the most effective solution. Hire the most qualified candidate. Explain and justify a new budget.	Appraises, compares, concludes, contrasts criticizes, critiques defends, describes, discriminates, evaluates, explains, interprets, justifies relates, summarizes, supports.
Creating: Builds a structure or pattern from diverse elements. Put parts together to form a whole, with emphasis on creating a new meaning or structure.	Write company operations or process manual. Design a machine to perform a specific task. Integrates training from several sources to solve a problem. Revises and process to improve the outcome.	Categorizes, combines, compiles, composes, creates, devises, designs, explains, generates, modifies, organizes, plans, rearranges, reconstructs, relates, reorganizes, revises, rewrites, summarizes, tells, writes.

 

 

 

 queries

 Bloom’s Revised Taxonomy—Affective Domain

The affective domain (Krathwohl, Bloom, Masia, 1973) includes how we deal with things emotionally, such as feelings, values, appreciation, enthusiasms, motivations, and attitudes. The five major categories are listed from the simplest behaviour to the most complex:

Category	Examples	Key Words [Verbs]
Receiving Phenomena: Awareness, willingness to hear, selected attention.	Listen to others with respect. Listen for and remember the name of newly introduced people.	Asks, chooses, describes, follows, gives, holds, identifies, locates, names, points to, selects, sits, erects, replies, uses.
Responding to Phenomena: Active participation on the part of the learners. Attends and reacts to a particular phenomenon. Learning outcomes may emphasize compliance in responding, willingness to respond, or satisfaction in responding (motivation).	Participates in class discussions.  Gives a presentation. Questions new ideals, concepts, models, etc. in order to fully understand them. Know the safety rules and practices them.	Answers, assists, aids, complies, conforms, discusses, greets, helps, labels, performs, practices, presents, reads, recites, reports, selects, tells, writes.
Valuing: The worth or value a person attaches to a particular object, phenomenon, or behaviour. This ranges from simple acceptance to the more complex state of commitment.  Valuing is based on the internalization of a set of specified values, while clues to these values are expressed in the learner’s overt behaviour and are often identifiable.	Demonstrates belief in the democratic process. Is sensitive towards individual and cultural differences (value diversity). Shows the ability to solve problems. Proposes a plan for social improvement and follows through with commitment. Informs management on matters that one feels strongly about.	Completes, demonstrates, differentiates, explains, follows, forms, initiates, invites, joins, justifies, proposes, reads, reports, selects, shares, studies, works.
Organization: Organizes values into priorities by contrasting different values, resolving conflicts between them, and creating a unique value system.  The emphasis is on comparing, relating, and synthesizing values.	Recognizes the need for balance between freedom and responsible behaviour. Accepts responsibility for one’s behaviour. Explains the role of systematic planning in solving problems.  Accepts professional, ethical standards. Creates a life plan in harmony with abilities, interests, and beliefs. Prioritizes time effectively to meet the needs of the organization, family, and self.	Adheres, alters, arranges, combines, compares, completes, defends, explains, formulates, generalizes, identifies, integrates, modifies, orders, organizes, prepares, relates, synthesizes.
Internalizing values (characterization): Has a value system that controls their behaviour. The behaviour is pervasive, consistent, predictable, and most importantly, characteristic of the learner. Instructional objectives are concerned with the student’s general patterns of adjustment (personal, social, emotional).	Shows self-reliance when working independently.  Cooperates in group activities (displays teamwork). Uses an objective approach in problem-solving.  Displays a professional commitment to ethical practice daily. Revises judgments and changes behaviour in light of new evidence. Values people for what they are, not how they look.	Acts, discriminates, displays, influences, listens, modifies, performs, practices, proposes, qualifies, questions, revises, serves, solves, verifies.

 

 

 

 

Bloom’s Taxonomy—Psychomotor Domain

The psychomotor domain includes physical movement, coordination, and use of the motor-skill areas. Development of these skills requires practice and is measured in terms of speed, precision, distance, procedures, or techniques in execution. The seven major categories are listed from the simplest behaviour to the most complex. The Simpson’s and Harrow’s psychomotor domains are especially useful for the development of children and young people, and for developing skills in adults that take people out of their comfort zone. Dave’s psychomotor domain is the simplest and generally easiest to apply in the corporate development environment. Both models offer different emotional perspectives and advantages: Check the relevance and importance of each before you implement.

 

 

Simpson’s Psychomotor Domain

Category	Examples	Key Words [Verbs]
Perception (awareness): The ability to use sensory cues to guide motor activity.  This ranges from sensory stimulation, through cue selection, to translation.	Detects non-verbal communication cues. Estimate where a ball will land after it is thrown and then moving to the correct location to catch the ball. Adjusts heat of the stove to correct temperature by smell and taste of food. Adjusts the height of the forks on a forklift by comparing where the forks are about the pallet.	Chooses, describes, detects, differentiates, distinguishes, identifies, isolates, relates, selects.
Set: Readiness to act. It includes mental, physical, and emotional sets. These three sets are dispositions that pre-determine a person’s response to different situations (sometimes called mindsets).	Knows and acts upon a sequence of steps in a manufacturing process. Recognize one’s abilities and limitations. Shows desire to learn a new process (motivation). NOTE: This subdivision of Psychomotor is closely related with the “Responding to phenomena” subdivision of the Affective domain.	Begins, displays, explains, moves, proceeds, reacts, shows, states, volunteers.
Guided Response: The early stages in learning a complex skill that includes imitation and trial and error. Adequacy of performance is achieved by practising.	Performs a mathematical equation as demonstrated. Follows instructions to build a model. Responds hand-signals of the instructor while learning to operate a forklift.	Copies, traces, follows, react, reproduce, responds.
Mechanism (basic proficiency): This is the intermediate stage in learning a complex skill. Learned responses have become habitual, and the movements can be performed with some confidence and proficiency.	Use a personal computer. Repair a leaking faucet. Drive a car.	Assembles, calibrates, constructs dismantles, displays fastens, fixes, grinds, heats, manipulates, measures, mends, mixes, organizes, sketches.
Complex Overt Response (Expert): The skilful performance of motor acts that involve complex movement patterns. Proficiency is indicated by a quick, accurate, and highly coordinated performance, requiring a minimum of energy. This category includes performing without hesitation, and automatic performance. For example, players are often utter sounds of satisfaction or expletives as soon as they hit a tennis ball or throw a football, because they can tell by the feel of the act what the result will produce.	Manoeuvres a car into a tight parallel parking spot. Operates a computer quickly and accurately. Displays competence while playing the piano.	Assembles, builds, calibrates, constructs, dismantles, displays, fastens, fixes, grinds, heats, manipulates, measures, mends, mixes, organizes, sketches.   NOTE: The Key Words are the same as a mechanism, but will have adverbs or adjectives that indicate that the performance is quicker, better, more accurate, etc.
Adaptation: Skills are well developed, and the individual can modify movement patterns to fit special requirements.	Responds effectively to unexpected experiences.  Modifies instruction to meet the needs of the learners. Perform a task with a machine that it was not originally intended to do (the machine is not damaged, and there is no danger in performing the new task).	Adapts, alters, changes, rearranges, reorganizes, revises, varies.
Origination: Creating new movement patterns to fit a particular situation or specific problem. Learning outcomes emphasize creativity based on highly developed skills.	Constructs a new theory. Develops new and comprehensive training programming. Creates a new gymnastic routine.	Arranges, builds, combines, composes, constructs, creates, designs, initiate, makes, originates.

 

 

Formulating behavioural/Learning Objectives

Given curriculum frameworks and guides, how do you choose and formulate actual learning objectives? Basically, there are two approaches either start by selecting content or topics that you want students to know (the cognitive approach) or start with what you want students to do (the behavioural approach). In effect, the cognitive approach moves from the general to the specific, and the behavioural approach does the opposite. Each approach has supporters and inherent strengths and problems. In practice, teachers often combine or alternate between them in order to give students the advantages of each.

From General to Specific - Selecting Content Topics

The cognitive approach assumes that teachers normally have several long-term, general goals for students, and it begins with those goals. It also assumes that each student work toward long-term, general goals along different pathways and using different styles of learning. Because of these assumptions, it is necessary to name indicators, which are examples of specific behaviours by which students might show success at reaching a general learning goal. Using a strictly cognitive approach to planning, therefore, a teacher’s job has two parts.

First, she must identify, find, or choose a manageable number of general goals. Then the teacher must think of a handful of specific examples or behavioural indicators for each goal. The behavioural indicators clarify the meaning of the general goal but are not meant to be the only way that students might show success at learning. Then, at last, thoughtful planning for individual lessons or activities can begin. This approach works especially well for learning goals that are relatively long-term goals that take many lessons, days, or weeks to reach. During such long periods of teaching, it is impossible to specify the exact, detailed behaviours that every student can or should display to prove that he or she has reached a general goal. It is possible, however, to specify general directions toward which all students should focus their learning and to explain the nature of the goals with a sample of well-chosen indicators or examples. The cognitive, general-to-specific approach is reasonable on the face of it, and probably describes how many teachers think about their instructional planning.

 

From specific to general: behavioural objectives

Compared to the cognitive approach, the behavioural approach to instructional planning reverses the steps in planning. Instead of starting with general goal statements accompanied by indicator examples, it starts with the identification of specific behaviours, concrete actions or words that students should perform or display as a result of instruction. Collectively, the specific behaviours may describe a more general educational goal, but unlike the indicators used in the cognitive approach, they are not a mere sampling of the possible specific outcomes. Instead, they represent all the intended specific outcomes.

In the most commonly used version of this approach, a good behavioural objective should have three features. First, it should specify behaviour that can be observed. In practice, this usually means identifying something that a student does or says, not something a student thinks or feels. Compare the following examples; the one on the left names a behaviour to be performed, but the one on the right names a thinking process that cannot, in principle, be seen:

 

 

 

Behavioural objective	Not a behavioral object
The student will make a list of animal species that live in the water but breathe air and a separate list of species that live in the water but do not require air to breathe	The student will understand the difference between fish and mammals that live in the water.

 

The second feature of a good behavioural objective is that it describes conditions of performance of the behaviour. What are the special circumstances to be provided when the student performs the objective? Consider these two examples:

 

Special condition of performance is specified	A special condition of performance is not specified
Given a list of 50 species, the student will circle those that live in water but breathe air and underline those that live in water but do not breathe air.	After three days of instruction, the student will identify species that live in water but breathe air, as well as species that live in water but do not breathe air.

 

The objective on the left names a special condition of performance that the student will be given a particular kind of list to work from which is not part of the instruction itself. The objective on the right appears to name a condition three days of instruction. However, the condition really describes what the teacher will do (she will instruct), not something specific to students’ performance. The third feature of a good behavioural objective is that it specifies a minimum level or degree of acceptable performance. Consider these two examples:

Specifies minimum level	Does not specify a minimum level
Given a list of 50 species, the student will circle all of those that live in water but breathe air and underline all of those that live in water but do not breathe air. The student will do so within fifteen minutes.	The student will circle names of species that live in water but breathe air and underline those that live in water but do not breathe air.

 

The objective on the left specifies a level of performance of 100 per cent accuracy within 15 minutes. The objective on the right leaves this information out, and incidentally, it also omits the condition of performance mentioned on the left. Behavioural objectives have obvious advantages because of their clarity and precision. They seem especially well suited for learning that by their nature they can be spelt out explicitly and fully, such as when a student is learning to drive a car, to use safety equipment in a science laboratory, or install and run a particular computer program. Most of these goals, as it happens, also tend to have relatively short learning cycles, meaning that they can be learned as a result of just one lesson or activity, or of just a short series of them at most. Such goals tend not to include the larger, more abstract goals of education. In practice, both kinds of goals, the general and the specific form a large part of education at all levels.

 

Finding the best in both approaches

When it comes to teaching and learning the large or major goals, then, behavioural objectives can seem cumbersome. How a teacher might ask, can you spell out all of the behaviours involved in a general goal like becoming a good citizen? How could you name in advance the numerous conditions under which good citizenship might be displayed or the minimum acceptable level of good citizenship expected in each condition? Specifying these features seems impractical at best, and at times even undesirable ethically or philosophically. Because of these considerations, many teachers find it sensible to compromise between the cognitive and behavioural approaches. Here are some features that are often part of a compromise:

When planning, think about both long-term, general goals and short-term, immediate objectives. A thorough, balanced look at most school curricula shows that they are concerned with the general as well as the specific. In teaching elementary math, for example, you may want students to learn general problem-solving strategies (a general goal), but you may also want them to learn specific fashion facts (a specific objective). Since general goals usually take longer to reach than specific objectives, instructional planning has to include both time frames. Plan for what students do, not what the teacher does. This idea may seem obvious, but it is easy to overlook it when devising lesson plans. To ensure diversity of goals and objectives when planning, consider organizing goals and objectives by using a systematic classification scheme of educational objectives.

 

Writing Instructional Objectives

To be effective, instructional objectives should be:

Ø  Specific - Instructional objectives should precisely describe what is expected of a learner.

Ø  Measurable - A measurable instructional objective is one that can be observed or one that generates data points.

Ø  Attainable: Learners cannot feel defeated by the intended outcomes of the learning objectives. Instructional objectives should not ask learners to prove themselves under unfeasible circumstances. Give learners ample time to prove their new skills.

Ø  Relevant: Most learners do not care about learning things that they cannot use right away. The information presented in the course and the outcomes should be relevant to their personal lives or day to day work.

Ø  Time-framed: Learners need a deadline for when they should achieve and demonstrate the use of the skillset. One month is the time-frame for the objective mentioned above. A learning objective that is not time-framed gives learners the false impression that they have an indefinite amount of time to learn the skill and apply it.