Instructional
objectives are derived from instructional goals; they are statement of
performance to be demonstrated by each student in the class, which are phrased
in measurable and observable terms. They are sometimes referred to as a
behavioral objectives or performance objectives or competency objectives.
Instructional objectives can be treated as a statement of what the teacher
intend to do. They can also be list of topics, concepts to be covered in a
course to bring about change in learners behavior. (Manger,
R. F. 1984)
Instructional objectives are very
useful to the whole process of teaching and learning for the purpose of running
academic matters, not only that but also to make teachers to be precise about
what to accomplish to make evaluation procedures easy, to make sequencing quite
easy, lastly to make students aware of what they are expected to learn in a
given lesson.
Objectives can be helpful in instructional planning, during the teaching or learning
process, and when assessing student progress. Instructional objectives are
often either ignored (by both teachers and students) or best occasionally
referred to. However, it can be argued that instructional objectives should
guide the teaching and learning process from beginning to the end. Most lesson
plan forms include a place for the objectives of the lesson to be recorded.
However, to write an objective down and then to plan the lesson around the
topic of the lesson rather than around the learning outcomes to be reached is
missing the point. There is good evidence in the human learning literature that
different kinds of outcomes are learned differently. Robert Gagné was one of
the first researchers to articulate this; it follows from his research that
instructional planning must take into account the kind of learning the students
will be engaged in as they seek to reach an objective. Effective teachers learn
to categorize their instructional objectives and then develop the teaching and
learning activities that will help students do the kind of thinking required
for that kind of learning.
It
is time to evaluate how does an educator know what to measure? Look at the
objectives how does a teacher know what kind of information gathering tools to
use (test, rubric, and portfolio)? Study the objectives, any test item, any
rating scale or checklist, any technique devised to collect information about
student progress must seek to measure the instructional objectives as directly
and as simply as possible. Instructional objectives are an extremely valuable
teaching tool that guides both teachers and students through the teaching and
learning process. (Brown, R. N, 1982)
Behavioral objectives are a vital part
of the planning process of all educational activities. Clearly defined
objectives provide a sound basis for the selection or design of instructional
materials, content and teaching methods.
In addition, stating objectives sharply helps
determine if the objective has, in fact, been accomplished and an impact has
occurred. Having clear behavioral objectives that state specifically what you
want the leaner to be able to do after attending your program is vital to the
program as well as the evaluation of its impact. Extension educators struggle
to develop evaluation instruments for their programs. Clearly stated objectives
are vital to evaluating the outcome(s) of instruction. The
followings are the characteristics of Behavioral objectives or Instructional
objectives;
The instructional objective must state the
audience for the educational activity. Who is the audience for your educational
activity? While it may appear the audience is obvious for most instructional
activities, a common error may distort or prevent the evaluation of your
program. First, one must consider the difference between the target and accessible
population or audience. For instance your target may be all youth between 11
and 13 years of age in Typical County; however, your accessible population may
be all 11-13 year old 2-H members who attended the County 2-H Camp. If you
write your objective in broad terms and follow proper evaluation procedures, you
will be held accountable for the behaviors of youth you never served. Your
behavioral objective should identify the specific audience you plan to target.
A second mistake made by many inexperienced educators is to include teacher or trainer
activities as a part of the behavioral objective. Consider the following
example: "The trainer will demonstrate the proper steps of delivering a
prepared speech." In this example, the activities are focused on what the
trainer plans to do and not what the target audience will be able to master.
Although it has the appearance of being one, the statement is not a behavioral
objective because the audience and its performance are not identified. This statement
could be made into a behavioral objective by rewarding the statement to the
following: "Upon completion of the lesson, 100% of the participants will
be able to list the steps in delivering a prepared speech." The audience
is the workshop participants. The
learner(s) can be an individual person or a group of individuals. For instance,
a learner identified within a behavioral goal could be a student, a classroom,
a group of individuals participating in specific track and field activities, or
an entire basketball team. Once the learner is defined, the behavior targeted
for change must be likely to be repeated over time and must be clearly defined
operationally in behavioral terms so that whenever it is performed, it can be
observed and measured across repeated occasions. An effective definition of the
desired behavior ensures that an outside observer will be able to confirm that
the target behavior has occurred. (Bandura, A. 1969)
Each objective must identify the behavior or
the performance the learner is expected to do. A behavioral objective should
never include the instructional process or procedure as the behavior. It should
always describe the intended results rather than the means of achieving those
results. The performance must be overt or directly observable. Performances
that cannot be directly observed or performances that are mental, invisible,
cognitive, or internal are considered covert and should never be used as a
behavior unless they are included with another indicator (directly observable)
behavior. Behaviors can be
written for one of three "domains of learning." The cognitive domain
deals with the acquisition of facts, knowledge, information, or concepts.
Psychomotor behaviors use the mind in combination with motor skills (physical
activities). Affective behaviors have to do with changes in attitudes, values,
aesthetics, and appreciation. Thus, it is important when defining the target
behavior to avoid words and phrases such as “being disruptive,” “staying on
task,” or “enjoying a story” that have not been operationally defined in
behavioral terms. These words and phrases can mean different behaviors to
different people. For instance, a substitute teacher may define “being
disruptive” as a student tapping pencil on the desk loudly enough that it can
be heard throughout the room. The teacher however, may only be recording “being
disruptive” when the child begins yelling so loudly that it can be heard out in
the hallway. Behavior definitions that are not stated clearly enough
(operationally in specific behavioral terms), for everyone to interpret in the
same way, can confuse both the learner and the individuals monitoring the
learner's performance. This confusion is likely to lead to further decrease in
the likelihood that a goal will be achieved by the learner. Behavioral
objectives written in the "cognitive" domain can be further divided
into six levels of Bloom's Taxonomy. Bloom's Taxonomy (Bloom, Engelhart, Furst,
Hill, & Krathwohl, 1956) includes: Knowledge:
remembering of previously learned material; recall (facts or whole
theories); bringing to mind. Comprehension:
grasping the meaning of material; interpreting (explaining or
summarizing); predicting outcome and effects (estimating future trends). Application: ability to use learned
material in a new situation; apply rules, laws, methods, theories. Analysis: breaking down into parts;
understanding organization, clarifying, concluding. Synthesis: ability to put parts together to form a new whole;
unique communication; set of abstract relations. Evaluation: ability to judge value for purpose; base on criteria;
support judgment with reason, (no guessing). Examples, Good and Bad, of
Including Behaviors in Objectives. You must include Observable behaviors in Objectives
as; the participants will understand the difference between soil texture and soil
porosity. Understand is a covert activity. How will you know the participants
understand? Rewrite with an observable behavior. For example: Each participant will be able to list in
writing the major differences between Soil texture and soil porosity. Each
participant in the program will develop a written conservation plan for his
farm. The behavior is directly observable. You will be able to examine each
conservation plan. The youth will develop an appreciation for parliamentary
law. Develop an appreciation is a covert activity. How will you know they
appreciate parliamentary law? Rewrite with an observable behavior. For example:
Participants will demonstrate an
appreciation of parliamentary law by correctly using the principles in each
business meeting. The instructor will demonstrate the steps in
completing a 1954 income tax form. This is not a behavioral objective. It is a
statement of what the instructor will do. You can make it a behavioral
objective by rewriting in the following manner: Upon completion of the training, participants will correctly list the
steps in completing a 1954 income tax form. (Bloom, B. S. et al. 1956)
Each behavioral objective must describe the conditions under
which the performance is to occur. Conditions may include what the learner will
be allowed to use, what the learner will be denied, under what conditions the
learner is expected to perform the behavior, or specific skills that should be
excluded. The definition of the behavior should also identify elements of the
teaching or learning context that are important for determining the conditions
in which a behavior is to occur. The circumstances, requests, materials, and
instructions that are identified in the behavioral objective as important
elements in the context in which a behavior should be performed must be
sufficiently detailed to allow a teaching or learning context to be provided
repeatedly. The specific environmental cues that are present when a behavior is
expected to occur must be described in enough detail to ensure there will be
clear and consensual understanding of exactly what such cues include.
Frequently the statement of an objective begins with condition statements, such
as the following: Given a map of the United States …, Given independent study
time …, After reading this paragraph about … Examples of Adding Conditions to
an Objective will be what can the learner use: Given a maximum of six
references, each participant will prepare four to six minutes extemporaneous
speech, what the learner denied without the use of any reference materials, the
president will conduct the meeting using Roberts Rules of Order, Under what conditions is the learner expected
to perform: Given a small engine with one problem, a set of diagnostic
equipment, and a repair manual, the youth will diagnose and repair the small
engine in less than 60 minutes. Specific skills that should be excluded: Without
restarting the computer, each participant will successfully change the display
setting of their computer. (Locke, E. A., & Latham, G. P. 1990).
Each objective must describe the degree to which the
behavior must be performed to constitute an acceptable performance. It is not
always necessary or practical to include the degree in an objective; however,
the more information included in an objective the better it will communicate
the desired outcome. The degree can include criterion such as speed, accuracy
and quality. Behavioral objectives must be written in such a way that the aim
is for the individual learner to remain positively motivated to continue
working on the long-term goal by experiencing success on the smaller-scope
behavioral objectives. If a behavioral objective is too broad, complex, and
difficult, a learner may stop trying to perform the behavior. Behavioral
objectives are intended to provide feedback for successful performance over
time, and this progress can reinforce the learner with positive feedback. The
learner's motivation also may decrease if behavioral objectives are too easy.
The person working on a behavioral objective that is easily accomplished can
become bored with the learning opportunity. Or it may take a long time to
achieve the stated goal because there are too many objectives that must be met,
which makes the goal seem unobtainable to the learner. The final information
necessary in an effective behavioral objective must be statements of the
criteria for acceptable performance of the targeted behavior. This statement
must define the minimal performance necessary to consider a behavioral response
correct and sets a standard for evaluation purposes. There are a number of ways
in which to evaluate a response: accuracy (number of items correct), frequency
of occurrence (number of behaviors performed), duration (behavior occurring
within a time period), or latency (time taken until a response occurs). Another
consideration in determining criteria for successful accomplishment of
behavioral objectives involves how many times a learner must meet a criterion
before the behavior is considered learned. Information about the criteria for
evaluating a correct response will guide the ways in which learner performance
of the behavioral objective will be measured. (Sulzer-Azaroff, B., & Mayer,
G. R. 1977).
Instructional objectives should be time bound; the
criteria for successful accomplishment of each behavioral objective are raised
until the learner is able to accomplish the long-term goal that has been
identified. May begin by writing
behavioral goals and objectives for only two students in class who are
receiving grade “C” on three assignments. Each subsequent behavioral objective
will include criteria that increase in complexity until is providing support to
all of students who need individualized
behavioral goals and objectives and can show that student performance is
increasing using evaluation data for each student. Individuals designing
behavioral objectives must balance the number of objectives within each
long-term goal as well as the level of difficulty involved in each behavioral
objective to help ensure the learner will continue working on a long-term goal.
Developing effective behavioral objectives can be challenging. Individuals who
write behavioral objectives must monitor progress closely and make
modifications as needed over time to help ensure that motivation on the part of
the learner remains high. The criteria identified for judging success are
effective for evaluating progress, and progress toward the overall goal is
being made in a timely manner. In preparation of instructional
objectives teacher should consider time, where by aims and goals are to be
attained for some length of time for limit. For instance in period of 40
minutes a teachers should make sure he or she covers the concept prepared
within a given time, so as to draw learners’ attention. (Alberto and Troutman, 1999)
Behavioral
objectives use observable terms like recite, identify, pick out, apply, add and
subtract, write down and so on. for instance by end of the lesson the student
will be able to correct, pick out and write down lists of the common and proper
nouns, adverbs ,adjectives from an appropriate passage. The purpose of using
observable terms is to measure the behavior of the students. (Martin, G., & Pear, J. 1996).
Behavioral objectives covering the
unit or lessons of the course, means that instructional objectives must be
prepared by the teacher before entering the class in each period to each
subject in order to make evaluation easily, for example by the end of the lesson
the student will be able correctly to calculate the area of circle by using
radii and pie. (Martin, G. &
Pear, J. 1996).
Alberto
and Troutman (1999) suggest writing each element of a behavioral objective as a
guideline or format, as the following example illustrates:
- Goal: Cindy writes effective behavioral goals and objectives for all students needs (additional academic support in her math class).
- Condition: Cindy identifies a student who is not succeeding on a math assignment in her class.
- Behavior: Cindy writes a behavioral goal for that student, breaking the goal down into behavioral objectives that facilitate or assist the student in being successful.
- Criteria: Cindy writes a behavioral goal that includes two or more behavioral objectives for two general education students who receive a C or lower on three consecutive assignments in her class with 100% accuracy for three months.
Generally, for a curriculum or
course usually draw up aims and goals which hoped student to achieve by the end of period of
instruction in any unity or lesson, teachers must have an even clearly and more
precise idea of what they plan to achieve through instruction in terms of
changing student behavior.
Instructional objectives are often classified according to the kind or level of
learning that is required in order to reach them. There are numerous taxonomies
of instructional objectives; the most common taxonomy was developed by Benjamin
Bloom and his colleagues. The first level of the taxonomy divides objectives
into three categories: cognitive, affective, and psychomotor. Simply put,
cognitive objectives focus on the mind; affective objectives focus on emotions
or affect; and psychomotor objectives focus on the body. Cognitive objectives
call for outcomes of mental activity such as memorizing, reading, problem
solving, analyzing, synthesizing, and drawing conclusions. Bloom and others
further categorize cognitive objectives into various levels from the simplest
cognitive tasks to the most complex cognitive task. These categories can be
helpful when trying to order objectives so they are sequentially appropriate.
This helps to ensure that prerequisite outcomes are accomplished first. Affective
objectives focus on emotions. Whenever a person seeks to learn to react in an
appropriate way emotionally, there is some thinking going on. What
distinguishes affective objectives from cognitive objectives is the fact that
the goal of affective objectives is some kind of affective behavior or the
product of an affect like an attitude. The goal of cognitive objectives, on the
other hand, is some kind of cognitive response or the product of a cognitive
response. Psychomotor objectives focus on the body and the goal of these
objectives is the control or manipulation of the muscular skeletal system or
some part of it like dancing, writing, tumbling, passing a ball, and drawing.
All skills requiring fine or gross motor coordination fall into the psychomotor
category. To learn a motor skill requires some cognition. However, the ultimate
goal is not the cognitive aspects of the skill such as memorizing the steps to
take. (Bloom, B. S. et al. 1956)
REFERENCES
Alberto, P. A. & Troutman, A. C. (1999). Applied
behavior analysis for teachers. New Jersey:
Merrill.
Bandura, A. (1969). Principles of behavior
modification. New York: Holt, Rinehart, & Winston.
Bloom, B. S. et al. (1956). Taxonomy of educational
objectives book 1: Cognitive domain. New
York: David McKay Company, Inc.
Locke, E. A.,
& Latham, G. P. (1990). A theory of goal setting and task performance.
Englewood Cliffs, NJ: Prentice-Hall.
Maag,J. W. (2004). Behavior management: From
theoretical implications to practical
applications. Belmont, CA: Thomson Learning.
Mager, R. F. (1984). Preparing
instructional objectives. Belmont, California: David S. Lake
Publishers.
Martin, G., & Pear, J. (1996). Behavior
modification: What it is and how to do it. Upper Saddle River, NJ: Prentice Hall.
Sulzer-Azaroff, B., & Mayer, G. R. (1977). Applying
behavior-analysis procedures with children
and
youth. New York:
Holt, Rinehart, & Winston.
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