CIT 210: Instructional Methods and Strategies

TOPIC 2: EDUCATIONAL GOALS AND INSTRUCTIONAL

OBJECTIVES.

Introduction

In all our daily endeavors, we aim to achieve something. A lot of times, we do so

without being aware of it. In many cases, when we are asked by someone; (What
are you doing?” we get stuck. If we are asked; “Why are you doing------?”
whatever it is we are doing, we do not have any good answer for what we are
doing at that time. A lot of times what we do leads to something not so
immediately discernible or recognized by us. It may in fact lead to something we
wish to have in one month, one year, or several years ahead.

In almost all cases, we engage in certain activities as a means to alleviating certain

problems which we anticipate in the future. As human beings we are purposeful.
We engage in purposeful activities. Sometimes however, we engage in activities
whose results we are very clear about. When this happens, we are able to give
clear responses to the questions raised above. Our efforts become more specific.
Our activities are more deliberate and more directed. When we are clear about the
expected results or outcome, we tend to also be clear about those activities that will
lead to those results. As a result of that clarity and specificity, we engage in the
activities with direct and deliberate confidence. We thus tend to achieve the
anticipated results more readily. This is because we are able to identify certain
activities that lead to some partial results which act as stepping stones to the final
desired outcomes.

Educational Goals

Gagne’ (1979 & 2005) states, “Educational goals are statements of the outcomes of
Education. They refer to activities made possible by learning which is brought
about by deliberately planned instruction.”

In Kenya, there are some broad statements regarding what education should aim to
achieve. These are statements made at the national level. They constitute the
National Goals of Education in Kenya. These are namely:

1. Education must serve to foster National Unity.

2. Education must prepare and equip the youth with knowledge, skills and
expertise to enable them to play an effective role in the life of the nation.
3. Education must serve the needs of National Development.
4. Education must provide for the full development of talents and personality.
5. Education must promote social justice and morality, social obligations and
responsibility
6. Education must foster positive attitudes and consciousness towards other
nations.

The preceding statements are very broad. They are made at the national level. It is
not easy to identify the activities which will lead to their achievement. From these
broad statements however, an effort is made to design a curriculum in terms of
courses or subjects to be taught at different levels of the Education System in
Kenya. For each level and each subject in the curriculum, other goals are stated.
These ones are narrower in scope, hence more specific than the six above.
The goal statements generated for each educational level and for each subject in
the curriculum are indeed more specific. They are not as broad as any of the six
statements give here. They describe behavior which can be achieved in shorter
periods of time. However, the statements are still very broad and take a relatively
long time to achieve. They are a good starting point for the classroom teacher. As
teachers we will rely on these statements quite often if not always.

Instructional Objectives

The statements listed above are very broad. They are National Goals of Education
in Kenya. Curriculum designers may use these goal statements as a basis to come
up with the syllabuses. Each syllabus has goals which it aims to achieve. These
goals will necessarily be much broader than those developed at the lower levels.
The goals set at the syllabus level act as stepping stones toward achievement of the
broad National Goals listed earlier. Instructional Objectives are different from
goals.

While goals communicate general outcomes that are long-range, instructional

objectives communicate specific outcomes which are short-range and are
achievable in some cases in as short a time as only five (5), ten(10) orin a one 40-
minute lesson. Briggs (1977 & 1991) says the following about instructional
objectives:

“Objectives are much more specific, much narrower in scope than goals.
Objectives are also

Short-range and more precisely stated than goals, as in objectives for a

course-----objectives

Can be stated very specifically in behavioral terms. Such objectives are

stated to describe

What behavior can be observed in the student as a result of instruction, to

demonstrate

Mastery of an objective.

Objectives are written or verbal statements which describe specific terminal

behavior required of learners to signify successful completion of a unit of study.
Objectives identify the end products or terminal performance in terms of
observable and measurable behavior. Goals are imprecise, broad and even
ambiguous. Objectives are precise, narrower and specific. Objectives are less
prone to varied interpretations by different people and they are short-range.

Criteria for Instructional Objectives

Mager (1962), proposed what a good Instructional Objective must contain.

1. The terminal performance or behavior that the learner will be capable of

doing. This performance must be clearly identified. He called this: THE
ACTION.
2. A description of the major characteristics of the environment in which
the performance will occur. He calls this: THE CONDITIONS.
3. A description of how good the learner’s performance must be for the
teacher and the learner to conclude that the objective has been mastered,
at least for this instructional period; i.e. in the objective, a criterion for
mastery should be stated. He calls this: THE EVALUATION.

We can use the acronym ACE, where;

A = Action

C = Conditions

E = Evaluation Criteria

Gagne’ (1979 & 2005) on the other hand proposed 5 critical components of a
properly stated objective. These five however, cover the same areas as those three
proposed by Mager (1962). These are:

1. The situation under which the learned behavior is to be demonstrated (2)

 2. The learned capability which is to be demonstrated to prove mastery of what
is taught (1).
3. The object that can be used to infer the mastery (3).
4. The action in which the learner will be engaged in order to demonstrate
learning the desired capability (1)
5. Tools or other constraints to be used by the learner when they demonstrate
the learned capability (2)

The numerals in the parentheses at the end of each statement give the statement’s
correspondence with each of Mager’s statements describing the criteria for a
properly written (or stated) instructional objective.

Examples (and non-examples) of Instructional Objectives

Examine the statements that follow here below. For each statement, state whether,
in your view, it is a properly written Instructional Objective.

1. Given a thin piece of aluminum foil, its Mass and its Density, the learner
should be able to calculate its volume correctly using the formula; Density
= Mass/Volume.
2. The teacher wants her pupils to show improved vocabulary by selecting
from multiple-choice alternatives, the correct definitions of words previously
defined in class.
3. At the end of this lesson, the students will gain a clear insight and
understanding of the causes of the European scramble for Africa.
4. When asked to write a definition of Learning, the learner writes a definition
that includes the two major characteristics common to all definitions of
learning.
 5. When asked to complete an anonymous evaluation of the course, the learner
will indicate that they enjoyed the course and would like to learn more about
the subject.

Use of terms in Objectives

The terminal performance should describe what the learner will be capable of
doing as a result of learning. We should therefore use action Verbs which clearly
describe the learner’s actions. Therefore action verbs such as the following:

Draw, identify, assemble, compute, name, state, choose, select, describe,

compare, contrast, distinguish, design, develop, generate, analyze, synthesize, sum
up, create, demonstrate, explain, etc.

Verbs which are vague and imprecise should not be used. Such imprecise verbs do
not describe behavior that one can observe. Such verbs do not lend themselves to
observation and can therefore not be tested to find out whether the behavior they
represent is present or not. Such imprecise verbs are for example the following:

Know, understand, appreciate, like, enjoy, gain insight, see significance of,
etc

These latter verbs do not describe behavior that we can observe or measure.
Indeed education is about knowing and understanding or enjoying and liking. But
once we set to enable people to know something we must ask ourselves how we
will find out whether the person or the people now know what we want them to
know. Ask yourself; “How will I know whether my learners know or understand
or like what I want them to?” In other words, what must the learner do in order for
me to conclude that they now know or understand? Very likely, the answer to this
question will come in terms which are action oriented such as the action verbs
given in the first list in the preceding paragraph.
 Functions of Instructional Objectives

1. They provide both the teacher and the learner with an idea of the expected
outcome of instruction.
2. Use of objectives provides the learner with an overview of those points that
the teacher is trying to convey in the material being presented.

Objectives change and evolve into new ones as learning progresses. There is need
for flexibility to capitalize on the unexpected. There is nothing about objectives
that limits one to only the objectives specified and nothing more.

Advantages of Using Instructional Objectives

1. The use of objectives forces the teacher to think in terms of the learner’s
behavior and what the learner will be able to do as a result of instruction.
2. Their use places the learners and what they are learning first as opposed to a
preoccupation with what the teacher does or says. The instructional method
follows from the objective we seek to achieve.
3. Their use helps the teacher to plan the terminal stages of instruction.
4. Their use helps the teacher answer the following questions;

a. What material should the learners be exposed to?

b. What should the teacher say or do?

c. What should be learned first?

 5. They offer learners explicit statements of what the learning situation requires
and thus helps reduce confusion and frustration in the classroom.
6. They can improve teacher-learner communication.
7. By specifying the objectives, the teacher enhances the accuracy of
assessment (the more clearly the objectives are specified, the easier it is to
assess performance.
8. Their use encourages learners to focus their attention and practice on the
important aspects of the material to be learned.
9. Use of objectives facilitates organization in much the same way as advance
organizers.
10.It provides for contiguity by ensuring that all prerequisites and components
necessary for learning a task are available to the learner at the appropriate
time.
11.It can also facilitate learning by helping the teacher to focus on the learning
experiences and materials that are most appropriate for learning the specified
objectives.

A well stated set of instructional objectives should put in consideration Bloom’s

taxonomy of objectives to include cognitive, psychomotor and affective domains.