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1 - Learning Objectives

A learning objective is a specific statement that describes what a student will be able to do upon completing a lesson or unit. It is measurable and focuses on the student's observable behaviors or skills. A goal is a broader statement of intended outcomes. Learning objectives help guide curriculum development, instructional strategies, materials, and assessments. Objectives should clearly specify the audience, behavior, conditions, and criteria or standards the student must meet. Objectives are often classified into cognitive, psychomotor, and affective domains according to the type of learning involved.

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60 views

1 - Learning Objectives

A learning objective is a specific statement that describes what a student will be able to do upon completing a lesson or unit. It is measurable and focuses on the student's observable behaviors or skills. A goal is a broader statement of intended outcomes. Learning objectives help guide curriculum development, instructional strategies, materials, and assessments. Objectives should clearly specify the audience, behavior, conditions, and criteria or standards the student must meet. Objectives are often classified into cognitive, psychomotor, and affective domains according to the type of learning involved.

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rayene
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LEARNING OBJECTIVES

What is a Learning Objective?

A learning objective is a statement of what the students will be able to do when they have
completed instruction. Objectives are specific, outcome based, measurable, and describe the
learner's behaviour after instruction.

What is the difference between a GOAL and a Learning Objective?

A GOAL is a statement of the intended general outcome of an instructional unit or program. A


goal statement describes a more global learning outcome. A learning objective is a statement of one
of several specific performances, the achievement of which contributes to the attainment of the
goal. A single GOAL may have many specific subordinate learning objectives. For example

GOAL: The goal of the Learning Assessment course is to enable the students to make reliable and
accurate assessments of learning.

Learning Objective #1: Given a learning objective, the student will be able to develop an
appropriate multiple-choice question to measure student achievement of the objective.
Learning Objective #2: Given a printout from an item analysis of a multiple-choice exam, the
student will be able to state the accuracy of the test scores.
Learning Objective #3: Given the discrimination and difficulty indices of an item, the student will
be able to determine if the item contributes to the reliability of the exam.

Why are Learning Objectives important? Learning objectives are guides to:
1. Selection of content
2. Development of an instructional strategy.
3. Development and selection of instructional materials.
4. Construction of tests and other instruments for assessing student learning outcomes.

How do you write a Learning Objective? In writing a Learning Objective:

1. Focus on student Performance not teacher performance.


2. Focus on product - not process.
3. Focus on terminal behaviour - not subject matter.
4. Include only one general learning outcome in each objective.
A learning objective is a statement describing a competency or performance capability to be
acquired by the learner. A clearly stated objective should specify four main things:

Audience - The audience is the learner(s) for whom the objective is written. This is usually written
"the learner" or "the student"; however, it could be as specific as "The third grade science student".

Behaviour - an objective must describe the competency to be learned in performance terms. The
choice of a verb is all-important here. Such frequently used terms as know, understand, grasp, and
appreciate do not meet this requirement. If the verb used in stating an objective identifies an
observable student behaviour, then the basis for a clear statement is established.

Conditions - an objective should describe the conditions under which the learner will be expected to
perform in the evaluation situation (what tools, references, or other aids will be provided or
denied?)

Criterion (Degree) - an objective should make clear how well a learner must perform to be judged
adequate. This can be done with a statement indicating a degree of accuracy, a quantity or proportion
of correct responses or the like.
Sometimes, one or even two of these elements will be easily implied by a simple statement.
Other times, however, it may be necessary to clearly specify in detail each element of the objective.
The following is an example of a learning objective:
OBJECTIVE: “Given a set of data, the student will be able to transform a sentence from the
active voice into the passive voice”.
Condition -
Behavior -
Criterion -

Classifying Objectives
In education environments, learning outcomes and objectives are often loosely sorted into
three groups, called domains. These domains were identified by an educational psychologist named
Benjamin Bloom.

1. Cognitive domain – encompasses intellectual or thinking skills.


2. Psychomotor domain – encompasses physical skills or the performance of actions.
3. Affective domain – encompasses attitudes and values.
In each domain, Bloom identified several “levels,” each with a list of suitable verbs for
describing that level in written objectives. The following table describes the cognitive domain, and
is based on information from Benjamin Bloom’s book Taxonomy of Educational Objectives (1956).
The levels are arranged from the least complex levels of thinking to the most complex levels of
thinking.

Level Description Suitable verbs


define, distinguish, identify, inquire, label, list,
Ability to recall previously learned match, memorize, name, read, recall, recognize,
Knowledge
material. relate, repeat, record

associate, describe, differentiate, discuss, explain,


Ability to grasp meaning, explain, extend, generalize, give examples, illustrate, infer,
Comprehension interpret, locate, rearrange, reorder, restate,
restate ideas.
rewrite, summarize, transform, translate

Ability to use learned material in apply, calculate, choose, classify, demonstrate,


Application develop, generalize, illustrate, operate, organize,
new situations. practise, restructure, sketch, solve, transfer, use

Ability to separate material into analyze, categorize, classify, compare, contrast,


deduce, describe, detect, determine, discriminate,
Analysis component parts and show differentiate, distinguish, experiment, group,
relationships between parts. inspect, investigate, point out, question, test
Ability to put together the separate combine, compile, create, design, generate,
Synthesis integrate, modify, plan, produce, propose, solve
ideas to form a new whole.
Ability to judge the worth of appraise, assess, choose, compare, conclude,
Evaluation consider, criticize, evaluate, judge, measure, rate,
material against stated criteria. score, select, support, validate

References:
- Anderson, L. W., & Krathwohl, D. R. (eds.) (2001). A Taxonomy for Learning, Teaching,
and Assessing: A Revision of Bloom's Taxonomy of Educational Objectives. New York:
Longman.
- Jenkins, A., & Unwin, D. (2001). How to write learning outcomes. Retrieved December 25,
2015, from http://www.ncgia.ucsb.edu/education/curricula/giscc/units/format/outcomes.html
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- Kolomitro, K., & Gee, K. (2015). Developing effective learning outcomes: a practical guide.
Retrieved from http://www.queensu.ca/ctl/resources/publications/learning-outcomes.html
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