Instructional Goals And Objectives

This site will introduce you to instructional goals, the three types of instructional objectives you may need to create to reach your goals, and the best way to write and assess them. What is a Goal, Goals are broad, generalized statements about what is to be learned. What is an Objective, Objectives are the foundation upon which you can build lessons and assessments that you can prove meet your overall course or lesson goals. Think of objectives as tools you use to make sure you reach your goals. They are the arrows you shoot towards your target (goal). Are Goals and Objectives Really That Important, They provide you with a solid foundation for designing relevant activities and assessment. Activities, assessment and grading should be based on the objectives. As you develop a learning object, course, a lesson or a learning activity, you have to determine what you want the students to learn and how you will know that they learned. Instructional objectives, also called behavioral objectives or learning objectives, are a requirements for high-quality development of instruction. They help you identify critical and non-critical instructional elements. They help remove your subjectivity from the instruction.

They help you design a series of interrelated instructional topics. Students will better understand expectations and the link between expectations, teaching and grading. Cognitive objectives are designed to increase an individual's knowledge. Affective objectives are designed to change an individual's attitude. Cognitive objectives are designed to increase an individual's knowledge. Given a description of a planet, the student will be able to identify that planet, as demonstrated verbally or in writing. The student will be able to evaluate the different theories of the origin of the solar system as demonstrated by his/her ability to compare and discuss verbally or in writing the strengths and weaknesses of each theory. Bloom describes several categories of cognitive learning. Starting with basic factual knowledge, the categories progress through comprehension, application, analysis, synthesis, and evaluation. Knowledge - Remembering or recalling information. Comprehension - The ability to obtain meaning from information. Application - The ability to use information.

Analysis - The ability to break information into parts to understand it better. Synthesis - The ability to put materials together to create something new. Evaluation - The ability to check, judge, and critique materials. In the 1990's, Lorin Anderson, a former student of Bloom, along with David Krathwohl, one of Boom's original partners, worked to revise the original taxonomy. Note that in the revised taxonomy, synthesis and evaluation are switched. Also, verbs are used in place of nouns to imply the action one takes in each level. Remember - Using memory to recall facts and definitions. Understand - Constructing meaning from information. Apply - Using procedures to carry out a task. Analyze - Breaking materials into parts to determine structures and relationships. Evaluate - Making jugements based on checking against given criteria. Create - Putting materials together to form a unique product. Whichever taxonomy you prefer, there are key verbs for each level you can use when writing cognitive objectives. Write a brief outline. Select the best product.

Predict what will happen next. Anderson, L.W., & Krathwohl (Eds.). A Taxonomy for Learning, Teaching, and Assessing: A Revision of Bloom's Taxonomy of Educational Objectives. Bloom, B.S. and Krathwohl, D. R. (1956). Taxonomy of Educational Objectives: The Classification of Educational Goals, by a committee of college and university examiners. Handbook I: Cognitive Domain. NY, NY: Longmans, Green. Affective objectives are designed to change an individual's attitude, choices, and relationships. Given the opportunity to work in a team with several people of different races, the student will demonstrate a positive increase in attitude towards non-discrimination of race, as measured by a checklist utilized/completed by non-team members. Krathwohl and Bloom created a taxonomy for the affective domain that lists levels of commitment (indicating affect) from lowest to highest. Being aware of or attending to something in the environment. Individual reads a book passage about civil rights. Showing some new behaviors as a result of experience. Showing some definite involvement or commitment. The individual demonstrates this by voluntarily attending a lecture on civil rights. Integrating a new value into one's general set of values, giving it some ranking among one's general priorities. The individual arranges a civil rights rally.