Teacher Education

Obenza Street, Island Garden City of Samal

Davao del Norte

Big Picture in Focus: ULO b. Write SMART lesson objectives in

three domains.

Metalanguage
The most essential terms below are operationally defined for you to have a better
understanding of this section in the course.
1. Content standards define what students should know and be able to do. These are
benchmarks which identify the expected understandings and skills for a content
standard at different grade levels.
2. Performance standards (or indicators) describe how well students need to achieve
in order to meet content standards. They are the levels of proficiency with which the
students are expected to demonstrate what they know and what they are able to do.
3. Competencies are more specific versions of the standards. They are specific tasks
performed with mastery. They also refer to the ability to perform activities within an
occupation or function to the standards expected by drawing from one’s knowledge,
skills, and attitudes.
4. Learning objectives are brief, clear, specific statements of what learners will be able
to do at the end of the lesson as a result of the activities, teaching and learning.

Essential Knowledge
Formulating good lesson objectives is crucial to good teaching. Unfortunately,
formulating SMART lesson objectives is one common problem among beginning teachers.
Let us learn how to do it here.

Guiding Principles in Determining and Formulating Learning Objectives

1. “Begin with the end in mind,” says Covey, the author of “Seven Habits of Effective
People”. In the context of teaching, this means that we must begin our lesson with a
clearly defined lesson objective.
2. Share lesson objective with students. Make known to our students our
instructional objective and encourage them to make the lesson objective their own.
This lesson objective when shared and possessed by our students will become their
personal target. It is against this personal target that they will evaluate themselves at
the end of the lesson. When our students set their own personal targets, we are
certain that they will become more self-motivated.
3. Lesson objectives must be in the two or three domains-knowledge (cognitive)
skill, (psychomotor) and values (affective). Our lesson maybe dominantly
cognitive, psychomotor, or affective. Dominantly cognitive if it is meant primarily for
knowledge acquisition and dominantly psychomotor if it is intended for honing of
skills. Lesson objectives in the affective domain are mainly focused on attitude and
value formation. A cognitive or a skill lesson must always include the affective
dimension for wholistic learning.

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 Teacher Education
Obenza Street, Island Garden City of Samal
Davao del Norte

We will find it very difficult sometimes to determine whether a lesson

objective is in the cognitive or psychomotor domain. If we come to think of it even a
dominantly cognitive lesson includes teaching of skills, say for instance intellectual
skills like reasoning and inferring. Likewise, an intended lesson objective in the
psychomotor domain such as “to focus the microscope under low and high – power
objectives in 30 seconds” includes the cognitive element of knowing the parts and
functions of each part of the microscope and understanding the dos and the don’ts in
focusing a microscope.
Furthermore, a lesson objective geared towards the formation of desirable
attitudes and habits has definitely a cognitive base. We may not succeed in effecting
change in attitude and behavior in people (affective) without explaining what the
desired attitudinal and behavioral change is all about and why such change is
desired. (cognitive)
Anyway, what is most important according to this principle is that our lesson
is wholistic and complete because it dwells on knowledge and values or on skills and
values or on knowledge and values or on skills and values or on knowledge, skills,
and values.
4. Work on significant and relevant lesson objectives. With our lesson objective
becoming our students’ lesson objective, too, our students will be self-propelled as
we teach. The level of their self-motivation all the more increases when our lesson
objective is relevant to their daily life, hence, significant.
5. Lesson objective must be aligned with the aims of education as embodied in
the Philippine Constitution and other laws and on the vision-mission
statements of the educational institution of which you are a part. The aims of
education as enshrined in our fundamental law of the land, in the Education Act of
1982, the Ten-Year Medium Term Development Plan must be reflected in the vision-
mission statements of educational institutions. In turn, the vision-mission statements
of educational institutions must filter down to the course objectives stated in course
syllabi and in lesson objectives laid down in lesson plans.
This means that the aims and goals of education as provided for in our laws
filter down to our lesson objectives. We have something to do with the attainment of
our broad aims of education. We can contribute very much to the realization of our
school’s vision and mission statements. Imagine what happens when our lesson
objectives are not in any way related to the goals of educational institutions where
we work.
6. Aim at the development of critical and creative thinking. This is said more than
done. We need not to go into laborious research to be convinced that the
development of critical and creative thinking is wanting in classrooms. Most
questions asked whether oral or written are convergent, low-level questions.
If we want to contribute to the development of citizens needed to make
democracy, then we should include in our scope of questions high-level, divergent,
or open-minded questions. It must be good likewise not to frown on students who
question a lot – all for the development of critical and creative thinking.

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 Teacher Education
Obenza Street, Island Garden City of Samal
Davao del Norte

Our teaching strategies and techniques must be such that they serve as
catalyst in the development of higher-order-thinking skills (HOTS) and creative
thinking skills. For this reason, the whole brain must be used for balanced learning
not just the left for critical thinking but also the right for creative thinking.
7. For accountability of learning, lesson objectives must be SMART, i.e., Specific,
Measurable, Attainable, Result-oriented and Relevant Time-bound and
Terminal. When our lesson objective is SMART, it is quite easy to find out at the end
of our lesson if we attained our objective or not. It will also be easier on our part to
formulate a test that is valid to measure the attainment of our lesson objective.
Moreover, our lesson becomes more focused for we have a concrete picture of the
behavior that our students should be able to demonstrate if we realized our lesson
objective.
In short, SMART objectives increase our accountability for the learning of our
students. With SMART objectives we depart from the unsound practice of teaching
that is so spread out that in the end we find ourselves unclear on what test we are
going to give to assess learning. With SMART lesson objectives, there is greater
match between instruction and assessment. There is curriculum alignment.

Taxonomy of Objectives
With educational taxonomy, learning is classified into three domains.
1. Cognitive Domain
A. Bloom’s taxonomy of cognitive domain
Benjamin Bloom (1956) led his group in coming up with the list of
instructional objectives in the cognitive domain. Arranged from lowest to the
highest level. They are as follows:
• Knowledge or recall – It refers to acquisition of knowledge or the recall of
facts, concepts, and generalizations from an academic discipline. It means it
is knowledge of terminology and, conventions, trends and sequence,
classifications and categories, criteria and methodologies, principles,
theories, and structures. e.g., to identify the capital of the Philippines
• Comprehension – It relates to translation, interpretation, and extrapolation.
e.g., to interpret table showing the population density of the world
• Application –- It is the use of abstractions in particular situations. It is taking
information that has been studied and understood at the previous levels and
applying concepts or generalizations to new situations. e.g., to predict the
probable effect of a change in temperature on a chemical
• Analysis – It refers to breaking a whole into parts. e.g., to deduce facts from
a hypothesis
• Synthesis – It is related to putting parts together in a new form such as a
unique communication, a plan of operation, and a set of abstract relations.
e.g., to produce an original piece of art

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 Teacher Education
Obenza Street, Island Garden City of Samal
Davao del Norte

• Evaluation – It refers to judging the value of material or ideas using decision-

making skills. e.g., to recognize fallacies in an argument
B. Anderson’s taxonomy of cognitive domain
In the 1990s, Anderson, Bloom’s former student, together with a team of
cognitive psychologists, revisited Bloom’s taxonomy in the light of the 21 st
century skills. This led to Anderson’s taxonomy in 2001.
Definitions of Anderson’s Revised Taxonomy

Definition Verbs
Remembering: define, duplicate, list, memorize, recall,
Can student recall or remember the repeat, reproduce, state
information?
Understanding: classify, describe, discuss, explain,
Can the student explain ideas or identify, locate, recognize, report,
concepts? select, translate, paraphrase

Applying: choose, demonstrate, dramatize,

Can the student use the information in employ, illustrate, interpret, operate,
a new way? schedule, sketch, solve, use, write

Analyzing: appraise, compare, contrast, criticize,

Can the student distinguish between differentiate, discriminate, distinguish,
the different parts? examine, experiment, question, test

Evaluating: appraise, argue, defend, judge, select,

Can the student justify a stand or support, value, evaluate
decision?
Creating: assemble, construct, create, design,
Can the student create new product or develop, formulate, write
point of view?

2. Affective Domain
David Krathwohl (1964) and associates likewise came up with instructional objectives
related to interest, attitudes, and feelings – the affective domain. These include
objectives from the lowest to highest level.
The taxonomy of objectives is ordered according to the principle of internalization.
Internalization of a values begins with awareness of the value. This value awareness
leads to a point where the value becomes internalized, and it becomes part and parcel of
a person’s character, consequently guiding or controlling his/her behavior.
• Receiving – awareness, willingness to receive, selective attention e.g., to listen
attentively during group presentation
• Responding – requires active participation of learners and positive response to
the information by actively engaging in it

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 Teacher Education
Obenza Street, Island Garden City of Samal
Davao del Norte

o acquiescence, willing response, feelings of satisfaction, e.g., to

contribute to group discussion by asking questions
• Valuing –displaying behaviors that are appropriate and considerate with
values, beliefs, and attitudes
o acceptance, preference, commitment, e.g., to argue over an issue
involving health care
• Organization – concern with synthesizing different values, resolving conflicts
between values, and constructing and internally congruent value system
o conceptualization of values, organization of a value system, e.g., to
organize a meeting concerning a neighborhood’s housing integration
plan
• Characterization – behaving in ways consistent with espoused values
o generalized set of values, characterization or philosophy of life, e.g., to
join a rally on behalf of a noble cause
3. Psychomotor Domain
A. Anita Harlow (1972) did something parallel to what Bloom and Krathwohl did for
learning objectives in the psychomotor domain. Below is her list of objectives in
the psychomotor domain:
• Reflex movements – relate to reflexes, e.g., to contract a muscle
• Fundamental movements – relate to walking, running, jumping, pushing,
pulling, manipulating, e.g., to run a 100-yard dash
• Perceptual abilities – objectives relate to kinesthetic, visual, auditory,
tactile, and coordination abilities, e.g., to distinguish distant and close
sounds
• Physical abilities – relate to endurance, strength, flexibility, agility,
reaction-response time dexterity, e.g., to do five sit ups
• Skilled movements – objectives relate to games, sports, dances, and the
arts, e.g., to dance the basic steps of the waltz
• Nondiscursive communication – expressive movements through posture,
gestures, facial expressions, creative movements, e.g., to act in a play
B. Moore (1998) also gave three levels of learning in the psychomotor domain.
They are as follows:
• Imitation – models skills
• Manipulation – performs skills independently
• Precision – exhibits effortlessly and automatically

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 Teacher Education
Obenza Street, Island Garden City of Samal
Davao del Norte

How to Write Lesson Objectives

When you begin creating a course, you want to design with the end in mind. The
best way to approach this is to start by writing measurable, learning objectives. Effective
learning objectives use action verbs to describe what you want your students to be able to
do by the end of the course or unit. Aligning assessments with course expectations is much
easier when you have written measurable objectives from the beginning.
1. Identify the topic you want students to learn.
Example: seven steps of the research process
2. Identify the level of knowledge you want. In Bloom’s Taxonomy, there are six
levels of learning. It’s important to choose the appropriate level of learning, because
this directly influences the type of assessment you choose to measure your students’
learning.
Example: to know the seven steps of the research process (comprehension level)
3. Select a verb that is observable to describe the behavior at the appropriate
level of learning.
Example: Describe these steps
4. Add additional criteria to indicate how or when the outcome will be observable
to add context for the student.
Examples: Describe the seven steps of the research process when writing a paper.
Here are some examples of learning objectives and their revision.
Example 1:
• Original version: Understand the American criminal justice system.
• Revised version: Describe the history of the American criminal justice
system.
• Understand is not a measurable verb, however the intent of the instructor
was to have the students be able to describe, which is measurable.
Example 2:
• Original version: Describe and create a social media plan for your
organization.
• Revised version: Create a social media plan for your organization.
• Describe and create are two different levels of learning, and it’s strongly
suggested that you avoid having more than one action verb. Create is a
higher level of learning than describe, therefore it can be assumed that
you will be able to describe the process prior to applying it.
Example 3:
• Original version: Understand elements of editing.
• Revised version: Identify elements of editing, including composition,
setting, and lighting.

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 Teacher Education
Obenza Street, Island Garden City of Samal
Davao del Norte

• Understand is not a measurable verb, and it was too broad for a unit level
objective. Therefore, we narrowed the focus.
Example 4:
• Original version: Complete the quiz.
• Revised version: None
• Complete the quiz is an action item for the student, not a learning
objective.
• If your assessment is being used to meet your objective, then you will
want to write a measurable objective that describes the content of the
assessment. For example, if your learning objective has the action verb
“identify”, then you do not want to have an assessment that is above that
level of learning, such as analyzing the topic. On the other hand, if you
have an application-level verb, such as “design”, then you do not want to
assess the learning objective with only a multiple choice, knowledge level
quiz. Remember, when creating assessments, look at the action verb
being used for your learning objective and the level of learning to apply.

Self-Help: You can also refer to the sources below to help you
further understand the lesson:

Corpuz, B. & Salandanan, G. (2015). Principles of Teaching 1. Quezon City: LORIMAR

Publishing, Inc.
https://teachonline.asu.edu/2012/07/writing-measurable-learning-objectives/
https://www.bu.edu/cme/forms/RSS_forms/tips_for_writing_objectives.pdf
https://www.apu.edu/live_data/files/333/blooms_taxonomy_action_verbs.pdf
https://global.indiana.edu/documents/Learning-Taxonomy-Affective.pdf
http://www.nwlink.com/~donclark/hrd/Bloom/psychomotor_domain.html