WRITING INSTRUCTIONAL GOALS AND OBJECTIVES

begin with the end in mind

Goals and Objectives

Listing your course goals and objectives is the clearest way to communicate expectations to students. The syllabus is a good place for them! Well-written goals and objectives inform all on what is to be learned, and how assessment will occur.

What is a Goal?

Goals are broad, generalized statements about what is to be learned. Think of them as a target to be reached, or hit. Example: Students will be able to apply proper grammar to composition papers.

More on Goals

Goals loosely define what is to be learned, but are too broad and fuzzy for designing instruction.

More specific statements of what the learner must do are needed. Thats where objectives come in.

Objectives
An objective is a description of a performance you want learners to be able to exhibit before you consider them competent. An objective describes an intended result of instruction, rather than the process of instruction itself. (Mager, p. 5)

Objectives
It is important to be able to differentiate the course description from the course objectives. A course description simply tells what the course is about. You might consider the GOALS of the course to be linked to the course description; they are broad educational statements fitting the mission and description of the course.

Objectives
Specific measurable objectives, however, tell what the learner will be able to do upon successful completion of the course.

Objectives
Instructional objectives are specific, measurable, short-term, observable student behaviors.
Objectives lead to related activities and good assessment. Objectives are tools to ensure your students reach your goals.

Objectives
Why are well-written objectives important? They provide some basis and guidance for the selection of instructional content and procedures. They help in evaluating the success of the instruction. They help the student organize his/her efforts to accomplish the intent of the instruction.

Objectives
How Does One Write a Good Objective? A good objective communicates your intent well and leaves little room for interpretation. There are words that we often use that are open to many interpretations, and there are words that we can use that leave less to the imagination. So, when writing behavioral objectives, stick to the words that leave less room for interpretation.

Objectives
Words Open To Many Interpretations to know to understand to really understand to appreciate to fully appreciate to grasp the significance of to enjoy to believe to have faith in

Objectives
WORDS OPEN TO FEWER INTERPRETATIONS to write to recite to identify to sort to solve to construct to build to compare to contrast

Objectives
The verbs below may prove useful as you write your instructional objectives and are based on Blooms Taxonomy of cognitive behavior:

BLOOM S TAXONOMY
Higher Order Thinking Skills Evaluation Synthesis Analysis

Application
Comprehension Knowledge Lower Order Thinking Skills

BLOOM S TAXONOMY
Competence Knowledge Skills Demonstrated Observation and recall of information Knowledge of dates, events, places Knowledge of major ideas Mastery of subject matter Question Cues: list, define, tell, describe, identify, show, label, collect, examine, tabulate, quote, name, who, when, where, etc.

BLOOM S TAXONOMY
Competence Comprehension Skills Demonstrated Understanding information Grasp meaning Translate knowledge into new context Interpret facts, compare, contrast Order, group, infer causes Predict consequences Question Cues: summarize, describe, interpret, contrast, predict, associate, distinguish, estimate, differentiate, discuss, extend

BLOOM S TAXONOMY
Competence Application Skills Demonstrated Use information Use methods, concepts, theories in new situations Solve problems using required skills or knowledge Questions Cues: apply, demonstrate, calculate, complete, illustrate, show, solve, examine, modify, relate, change, classify, experiment, discover

BLOOM S TAXONOMY
Competence Analysis Skills Demonstrated Seeing patterns Organization of parts Recognition of hidden meanings Identification of components Question Cues: analyze, separate, order, explain, connect, classify, arrange, divide, compare, select, explain, infer

BLOOM S TAXONOMY
Competence Synthesis Skills Demonstrated Use old ideas to create new ones Generalize from given facts Relate knowledge from several areas Predict, draw conclusions Question Cues: combine, integrate, modify, rearrange, substitute, plan, create,

BLOOM S TAXONOMY
Competence Evaluation Skills Demonstrated Compare and discriminate between ideas Assess value of theories, presentations Make choices based on reasoned argument Verify value of evidence Recognize subjectivity Question Cues assess, decide, rank, grade, test, measure, recommend, convince, select, judge, explain, discriminate, support, conclude, compare, summarize

More on Objectives
Different archers have different styles; so do different teachers.
You can shoot your arrows (objectives) many ways. The important thing is that they reach your target (goals) and score that bullseye!

Types of Objectives

Cognitive Mental skills

Affective Beliefs and attitudes Psychomotor Physical skills

Tips for Writing Objectives

Objectives should specify four main things:

Audience - Who? Who is this aimed at? Behavior - What? What do you expect them to be able to do? Use action verbs to describe an overt, observable behavior. Condition - How? Under what circumstances will the learning occur? Degree - How much?

This is often called the ABCD's of objectives, a nice mnemonic aid!

Examples of Well-written Objectives

Psychomotor - Given a standard balance beam raised to a standard height, the student (attired in standard balance beam usage attire) will be able to walk the entire length of the balance beam (from one end to the other) steadily, without falling off, and within a six second time span.
Audience - Green Behavior - Red Condition - Yellow Degree - Blue

Examples of Well-written Objectives

Cognitive (comprehension) - Given examples and non-examples of constructivist activities in a college classroom, the student will be able to accurately identify the constructivist examples and explain why each example is or isn't a constructivist activity in 20 words or less.
Audience

- Green Behavior - Red Condition - Yellow Degree - Blue

Examples of Well-written Objectives

Cognitive (application) - Given a sentence written in the past or present tense, the student will be able to re-write the sentence in future tense with no errors in tense or tense contradiction (i.e., I will see her yesterday.).
Audience

- Green Behavior - Red Condition - Yellow Degree - Blue

Examples of Well-written Objectives

Affective - Given the opportunity to work in a team with several people of different races, the student will demonstrate an positive increase in attitude towards non-discrimination of race, as measured by a checklist utilized/completed by non-team members.
Audience - Green Behavior - Red Condition - Yellow Degree - Blue

Examples of Well-written Objectives

Notice:
Higher

cognitive skills = fuzzier objectives Affective objectives are the hardest objectives to write and assess. The verbs you use to describe the overt, measurable activity can be tricky to write.
Use

action verbs that can be observed and measured.

Objectives & Assessment: A Psychomotor Example

Goal - Walk the length of a balance beam.

Objective Derived From Goal Given a standard balance beam raised to a standard height, the student (attired in standard balance beam usage attire) will be able to walk the entire length of the balance beam (from one end to the other) steadily, without falling off, and within a six second time span.

Objectives & Assessment: A Psychomotor Example

Goal - Walk the length of a balance beam. Test The student must walk the entire length of a standard balance beam raised to a standard height steadily, without falling off, and within a six second time span. (Note how this part reflects the objective.) Three judges will observe a given individual perform this task three times, using a given scoring rubric to assign a score for each trial. The trial score for each trial is the average of all the judge's scores. The overall score for the individual is the average of the three trial scores.

Objectives & Assessment: A Psychomotor Example

Goal - Walk the length of a balance beam. Assessment Rubric

5 - Walks the balance beam flawlessly. Does not need to check balance, does not pause. Completes the walk within six seconds.

4 - Walks the beam, but is somewhat unsteady. Completes the walk within six seconds.
3 - Walks the beam, but is somewhat unsteady. May pause one or more times. Takes more than six seconds to complete the walk.

2 - Walks the beam, but is very unsteady, almost falling off, may pause one or more times, and/or takes more than six seconds.
1 - Falls off the beam before completing the walk. 0 - Falls off the beam immediately.

Test Yourself!

What is this objective missing? The student will be able to run 100 yards in less than 50 seconds. The condition is missing. Under what conditions? On a track? Up a hill with a 45 degree slope? See how leaving this part out can drastically affect what and how you teach?

Test Yourself!

What is this objective missing? Given the appropriate text, the student will recite a famous Haiku poem from that text. The degree is missing. How must the student recite it? Flawlessly? With expression? Leaving this component out makes it very difficult to assess student performance.

Choose a Partner

Choose a partner and write an objective. When youre finished, read it to the rest of the group. The group then will evaluate your efforts!

THE END