Educational Objectives

Facilitating the Learner

Various Alternative Names for Educational Objectives

Specific Learning Objectives Students’ Learning Outcomes Enabling Objectives Behavioral Objectives Instructional Objectives Educational Intents Educational Aims Educational Competencies

Definition: According to Gallagher and Smith (1989)

Educational Objectives are properly constructed educational objectives

represent relatively specific statements about what students would learn at the

end of a lesson.

Some characteristics of effective objectives

Consistent with overall goals

Clearly stated

Realistic and attainable

Suitable for learners' stage of development

Appropriately comprehensive

Westberg and Jason (1993): Collaborative Clinical Education

Purposes/Functions of Educational Objectives

Cause careful thinking about what is to be accomplished through the lesson

Help in building an active relationship between the teacher and the learner

Make teaching more directed and organized

Help avoiding unnecessary repetitions

Four parts of an Educational Objective

It should have an action verb.

It should include a specification of the content

It should contain a specification of the support material

It should contain a specification of the degree of learning

Examples

The learner will be able to retrieve information using database searches by identifying and acquiring full-text documents available from the www.

The students will be able to write/label all major parts of eye using a diagram/chart

Examples (cont… d)

The students will be able to underline parts of speech in the given sentences using the handout/text provided.

The students will be able to derive the rectangular components of a vector using trigonometric ratios for the angles of 300, 450, 600

Activity # 1:

Formulation of Objectives

Domains of learning Cognitive Domain: related to the intellectual learning and problem solving abilities of a learnerAffective Domain: related to the emotions and value system of the learner Psychomotor Domain: related to motor skills/capabilities of the learner

Bloom’s TaxonomyBloom’s Taxonomy

In 1956, Benjamin Bloom, a professor at the University of Chicago, shared his famous "Taxonomy of Educational Objectives".

Bloom identified various levels of three domains of learning.

He identified six levels in cognitive domain.

Evaluation

Synthesis

Analysis

Application

Comprehension

Knowledge

KnowledgeKnowledge Recall or recognition of information.

list name identify show recognize

definelocateoutline recallmatch

Comprehension Comprehension Understand, translate, paraphrase or interpret material.

paraphrase differentiate demonstrate visualize restate rewrite

summarize explain interpret describe compare distinguish

Application Application Use learned material in a new situation

apply modify put into practicecomputeoperate

solve illustrate calculate interpret manipulatepredict

Analysis Analysis Ability to discover and differentiate the components of a situation/information

contrast

compare

distinguish 

categorize

relate

analyze

organize

deduce

diagram

discriminate

Synthesis Synthesis Ability to combine parts to create ‘the big picture’

discuss plan createconstruct organize

design hypothesize support reportdevelop

EvaluationEvaluationAbility to judge the value or support judgment with reason

criticize justify concludeassessrate

evaluate

estimate

judge

defend

appraise

Activity # 2:

Formulation of Objectives

(According to Bloom’s Taxonomy)

Objective of the WorkshopTo support the workshop

participants in designing/creating effective educational objectives by

selecting suitable verbs from the list provided according to

the Bloom’s Taxonomy.