WEEK 2

Why Bother With Goals and 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. Learning objectives, also called behavioral objectives or instructional objectives, are a requirements for high-quality development of instruction.
• The purpose of objectives is not to restrict spontaneity or constrain the vision of education in the discipline; but to ensure that learning is focused clearly enough that both students and teacher know what is going on, and so learning can be objectively measured. Different archers have different styles, so do different teachers. Thus, you can shoot your arrows (objectives) many ways. The important thing is that they reach your target (goals) and score that bullseye!

Thus, stating clear course objectives is important because:

• Objectives guide the content materials and the teaching methods.
• You can use objectives to make sure you reach your goals.
• Students will better understand expectations and the link between expectations, teaching and grading.
• Assessment and grading should be based on the objectives.  

Types of Objectives

There are three types of objectives:

• Cognitive
• Affective
• Psychomotor

Cognitive Objectives

Cognitive objectives are designed to increase an individual's knowledge. Cognitive objectives relate to understandings, awareness, insights (e.g., "Given a description of a planet, the student will be able to identify that planet, as demonstrated verbally or in writing." or "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."). This includes knowledge or information recall, comprehension or conceptual understanding, the ability to apply knowledge, the ability to analyze a situation, the ability to synthesize information from a given situation, the ability to evaluate a given situation, and the ability to create something new.

Affective Objectives

Affective objectives are designed to change an individual's attitude. Affective objectives refer to attitudes, appreciations, and relationships (e.g., "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.").

Psychomotor Objectives

Psychomotor objectives are designed to build a physical skill (e.g., "The student will be able to ride a two-wheel bicycle without assistance and without pause as demonstrated in gym class."); actions that demonstrate the fine motor skills such as use of precision instruments or tools, or actions that evidence gross motor skills such as the use of the body in dance or athletic performance.

Cognitive Objectives

Cognitive objectives are designed to increase an individual's knowledge. Many refer to Bloom's taxonomy of cognitive objectives, originated by Benjamin Bloom and collaborators in the 1950's.
Examples:

• 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. The Anderson and Krathwohl Taxonomy was published in 2001 in the book "A Taxonomy for Learning, Teaching, and Assessing: A Revision of Bloom's Taxonomy of Educational Objectives."