CHAPTER 2

THE ROLE OF OBJECTIVES IN

EDUCATION
 Definition
• Objective is a stated desirable outcome of education.
• objectives help a teacher to plan instruction, guide
students learning and provide criteria for assessing
student outcomes.
• Tow criteria in selecting objectives: relevance and
feasibility
• Relevance refers to whether the objective is based on
the need of the society and the need of the learner
• feasibility (realism of goals) refers to whether the
objectives are achievable.
The Difference between objective, Goal, Need, and Outcome

Outcome • What occurs as a result of an educational

experience.
Goal • A general purpose. A broad outcome.
Objective • A stated desirable outcome of education.
(Instructional • More specific than a goal.
Objective)
Need • The discrepancy between an objective and
the present level of Performance.

Behavioral/ • A statement that specifies what observable

Performance performance the learner should be engaged
Objectives in when we evaluate achievement.
• Behavioral objectives require action verbs
such as list, identify, write, and read.
 The Instructional Process
• It comprises three basic steps:
1. planning instruction: identifying specific learning
outcomes (objectives), selecting materials to foster
these outcomes, and organizing learning
experiences into a coherent, reinforcing sequence.
2. Teaching-delivering the planned instruction to
students
3. Assessing how well students learn or achieve the
expectations or outcomes.
 Benefits of Stating Instructional Objectives
• gives direction in selecting contents, learning
experiences, instructional aides, assessment items
and tools
• helps to emphasize major points and reduce non-
essential material
• guide the students to what is expected from them
and help them to study important information
• According to Nitiko writing specific (instructional objectives):
1. Help teachers and/or curriculum designers make their own
educational goals explicit.
2. communicate the intent of instruction to students, parents, other
teachers, school administrators and the public.
3. Serve as basis for teachers to analyse what they teach and to
construct learning exercises.
4. describe the specific performance against which teachers can evaluate
the success of instruction.
5. Help educators to focus and to clarify discussions of educational goals
with parents (and others).
6. communicate to students the performance they are expected to learn.
7. They make it easier to individualize instruction.
8. They help teachers to evaluate and improve both instructional
procedures and learning targets.
 Levels and forms of Instructional objectives

• on the bases of their degree of generality and

specificity, there are three levels of objectives:
1. Global Objectives often called “goals,” are broad, complex
student learning outcomes
2. Educational Objectives represent a middle level of
abstraction. These represent objectives stated at curricular
or course levels
3. Instructional Objectives are most specific type of objectives
 Stating Objectives
 The ABCD method of writing objectives
Audience- The Audience is always the learner
Behavior- using action verbs to make specific and measureable
Conditions. These are contexts under which students will show
the needed behavior
Degree of acceptable performance. This criterion tells students
how well they must perform
Example: At the end of this discussion, the student will be able to
state the four elements in the statements of specific objectives.
Taxonomy of Instructional Objectives
 What is Bloom’s Taxonomy?

• A theory to identify cognitive levels (Levels

of thinking)
• Represents the full range of cognitive
functioning up to and including adult levels
• Not necessarily demonstrated by all children
• These levels can be improved with practice
 Taxonomy of Objectives
THREE TYPES OF LEARNING:
• COGNITIVE DOMAIN: Thinking, intellectual abilities.
Comprehending information, organizing ideas, evaluating
information and actions.
• AFFECTIVE DOMAIN: A learner’s emotions toward
learning. Interests, attitudes, opinions, appreciations,
values, emotional sets.
• PSYCHOMOTOR DOMAIN: Basic motor skills,
coordination, and physical movement. Speech
development, reading readiness, handwriting, physical
education, manipulative skills (keyboarding), industrial
technology, performance areas in science, art, music.
• Well-rounded and fully functioning people need
development in all three domains.
 Cognitive Affective Psychomotor
Domain Domain Domain
Creating Characterizing Articulating
by value or
Evaluating Precisioning
value concept
Analyzing
Organizing & Performing
Applying conceptualizing
Understanding Valuing Manipulating

Remembering Responding Imitating

Receiving
 Why use Bloom’s taxonomy?
• Write and revise learning objectives
• Plan curriculum
• Identifies simple to most difficult skills
• Effectively align objectives to assessment
techniques and standards
Taxonomy (Classification) of
thinking

Six cognitive levels

of complexity
 Original Revised

Evaluation Create
Synthesis Evaluate
Analysis Analyze
Application Apply
Comprehension Understand
Knowledge Remember

Noun Verb
 Creating
Revised taxonomies depicted
as a pyramid, with the lower
Evaluating
levels at the bottom of the Analyzing
figure, indicating a larger
body of knowledge available Applying
in foundational material.
Understanding
Remembering
As one moves up the Creating
hierarchy, more is learned,
thus, expanding the Evaluating
knowledge gained. The
Analyzing
inverted pyramid more
closely depicts this Applying
expanding knowledge.
Understanding
Remembering
Bloom’s taxonomy may be depicted as a
set of stairs that students climb from one Creating
level to the next.
Levels or pre-requisites
Evaluating
A student cannot effectively (ought not) try
to address higher levels until those below
them have been covered Analyzing
Each level is subsumed by the higher level
Applying
Levels of learning create an expected
ceiling for a given program or curriculum
Understanding
Progressive contextualization

Lower levels perhaps just enough for a Remembering

technician’s level of competence and not
beyond (for a more advanced position)
 Change in Terms
• Categories noun to verb
– Taxonomy reflects different forms of thinking
(thinking is an active process) verbs describe
actions, nouns do not
• Reorganized categories
– Knowledge = product/outcome of thinking
(inappropriate to describe a category of
thinking) now remembering
– Comprehension now understanding
– Synthesis now creating to better reflect nature
of thinking described by each category

Handout #
 Changes in Structure
• Products of thinking part of taxonomy
• Forms of knowledge = factual, conceptual,
procedural, metacognitive (thinking about
thinking)
• Synthesis (creating) and evaluation
(evaluating) interchanged
– Creative thinking more complex form of
thinking than critical thinking (evaluating)

Handout #
 Remembering
The learner is able to recall, restate and
remember learned information
– Describing – Retrieving
– Finding – Naming
– Identifying – Locating
– Listing – Recognizing

Can students recall information?

 Understanding
Student grasps meaning of information
by interpreting and translating
what has been learned
– Classifying – Inferring
– Comparing – Interpreting
– Exemplifying – Paraphrasing
– Explaining – Summarizing

Can students explain ideas or concepts?

 Applying
Student makes use of information in a context
different from the one in which it was learned

– Implementing – Using
– Carrying out c = – Executing

Can students use the information in

another familiar situation?
 Analyzing
Student breaks learned information into
its parts to best understand that information

– Attributing – Integrating
– Comparing – Organizing
– Deconstructing – Outlining
– Finding – Structuring

Can students break information into parts to

explore understandings and relationships?
 Evaluating
Student makes decisions based on in-depth
reflection, criticism and assessment

– Checking – Hypothesising
– Critiquing – Judging
– Detecting – Monitoring
– Experimenting – Testing

Can students justify a decision or

a course of action?
 Creating
Student creates new ideas and information
using what previously has been learned

– Constructing – Making
– Designing – Planning
– Devising – Producing
– Inventing

Can students generate new products,

ideas, or ways of viewing things?
 Questioning . . .
• Lower level questions—remembering,
understanding & lower level applying levels
• Lower level questions
– Evaluate students’ preparation and
comprehension
– Diagnose students’ strengths and weaknesses
– Review and/or summarizing content

Handout # University of Illinois (2006)

 Questioning . . .
• Higher level questions require complex
application, analysis, evaluation or creation
skills
• Higher level questions
– Encourage students to think more deeply and
critically
– Facilitate problem solving
– Encourage discussions
– Stimulate students to seek information on their
own

Handout # University of Illinois (2006)

 “Remembering” stems
What happened after...?
How many...?
What is...?
Who was it that...?
Name ...
Find the definition of…
Describe what happened after…
Who spoke to...?
Which is true or false...?
(Pohl, 2000)
 “Understanding” stems
Explain why…
Write in your own words…
How would you explain…?
Write a brief outline...
What do you think could have happened next...?
Who do you think...?
What was the main idea...?
Clarify…
Illustrate…

(Pohl, 2000)
 “Applying” stems
Explain another instance where…
Group by characteristics such as…
Which factors would you change if…?
What questions would you ask of…?
From the information given, develop a set of
instructions about…

(Pohl, 2000)
 “Analyzing” stems
Which events could not have happened?
If. ..happened, what might the ending have been?
How is...similar to...?
What do you see as other possible outcomes?
Why did...changes occur?
Explain what must have happened when...
What are some or the problems of...?
Distinguish between...
What were some of the motives behind..?
What was the turning point?
What was the problem with...?
(Pohl, 2000)
 “Evaluating” stems
Judge the value of... What do you think about...?
Defend your position about...
Do you think...is a good or bad thing?
How would you have handled...?
What changes to… would you recommend?
Do you believe...? How would you feel if...?
How effective are...?
What are the consequences...?
What influence will....have on our lives?
What are the pros and cons of....?
Why is....of value?
What are the alternatives?
Who will gain & who will loose? (Pohl, 2000)
 “Creating” stems
Design a...to...
Devise a possible solution to...
If you had access to all resources, how would you
deal with...?
Devise your own way to...
What would happen if ...?
How many ways can you...?
Create new and unusual uses for...
Develop a proposal which would...

(Pohl, 2000)
 Summary
Bloom’s revised taxonomy
• Systematic process of thinking & learning
• Assists assessment efforts with easy-to-use
format
• Visual representation of alignment between goals
& objectives with standards, activities, &
outcomes
• Helps form challenging questions to help
students gain knowledge & critical thinking skills
• Assists in development of goals, objectives, &
lesson plans