Developing Objectives That Will “Bloom” in Your Lesson Plans

Title: Developing Objectives That Will “Bloom” in Your Lesson

Plans

Lesson Purpose: To present the necessary elements of an effective training

objective and how objectives play a major role in training
transfer.

Training Objectives: At the end of this block of instruction the student will be able
to achieve the following objectives:

1. Successfully differentiate between the three elements

of a training objective, i.e., action, condition and
standard during classroom exercises.

2. Compare the three primary learning domains and

determine how an appropriately written objective
involves all three.

3. Using a variety of Aesop’s fables, effectively

demonstrate a working knowledge of Bloom’s
taxonomy by writing objectives at each level.

4. Accurately transfer Bloom’s taxonomy principles to

criminal justice lesson plan development.

Hours: One hour and thirty minutes

Instructional Method: Discussion/Practical Exercise

Materials Required: Pen/Pencil

Student Lesson Plans

References: Anderson, L.W. & Krathwohl, D.R. A Taxonomy for

Learning, Teaching, and Assessing, Abridged Edition.
Boston, MA: Allyn and Bacon, 2001.

ANSI/IACET 1-2013, Standard for Continuing Education and

Training, 2013 IACET, 21.

Bloom, Benjamin. Taxonomy of Educational Objectives:

Cognitional Affective Domains. White Plains, NY: Longham,
Inc., 1956.

Cartwright, Steve and Phillip Cartwright. Designing and

Producing Media-Based Training. Woburn, MA: Butterworth-
Heinemann, 1999.

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Developing Objectives That Will “Bloom” in Your Lesson Plans

Cloutier, Georgia, Susan Lewis, Laurie Austen-Kern, James

Creech and Ron Brooks. “Lesson Plan Preparation: Format
and Objectives,” Instructor Training Manual. Salemburg, NC:
North Carolina Justice Academy, 1996.

Dalto, Jeffrey. “Creating Learning Objectives: The Ultimate

Guide to Writing Learning Objectives for Training Materials.”
Convergence Training. March 2014. [On-line]. Available at:
https://www.convergencetraining.com/download/learning-
objectives-web.pdf [January 11, 2019].

Gronlund, Norman E. How to Write and Use Instructional

Objectives. Upper Saddle River, NJ: Prentice-Hall, 2000.

Hassell-Corbiell, Rives. Developing Training Courses.

Tacoma, WA: Learning Edge Publishing, 2001.

Hoover, Natasha. “What is the Importance of Studying

Bloom’s Taxonomy of the Cognitive Domain?” HubPages.
July 30, 2013. [On-line]. Available at
https://hubpages.com/education/Blooms-Taxonomy-of-the-
Cognitive-Domains [March 1, 2019].

“Interpol Guide to Effective Training, A Collective

Responsibility.” February 1, 2016. [On-line]. Available at:
https://www.interpol.int/Media/Files/INTERPOL-
Expertise/IGLC-Files/INTERPOL-Guide-to-Effective-
Training/ [December 18, 2018].

Mager, Robert. Making Instruction Work. Atlanta, GA: The

Center for Effective Performance, 1997.

Malamed, Connie. “A Quick Guide to Attitudinal Training.”

The E-Learning Coach. 2019. [On-line]. Available at
http://theelearningcoach.com/elearning_design/attitudinal-
training/ [March 3, 2019].

Malamed, Connie. “Writing for Instructional Design.” Simply

Useful Tools, LLC., January 2017.

Mugford, R, Corey, S and Bennell, C. “Improving Police

Training from a Cognitive Load Perspective.” Policing: An
International Journal of Police Strategies & Management. 36,
2, 2013.

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Developing Objectives That Will “Bloom” in Your Lesson Plans

Newstrom, John and Edward Cannell. The Big Book of

Presentation Games. New York: McGraw-Hill Trade, 1997.

Northwest Center for Public Health Practice. “Effective Adult

Learning: A Toolkit for Teaching Adults.” University of
Washington School of Public Health, 2014.
Pinkney, Jerry. Aesop's Fables. New York: Seastar Books,
2000.

Rothwell, William. Mastering the Design Process. San

Francisco, CA: Jossey-Bass Publishers, 1992.

Sari, Alatalo. “Critical Thinking: From Teaching to Theory.”

EPooki. February 6, 2015. [On-line]. Available at:
http://www.oamk.fi/epooki/2015/critical-thinking-theory-
teaching/?ccm_paging_p_b1802=3 [March 3, 2019.]

Schaefer, Peggy. “Lesson Plan: Formant and Objectives,”

Instructor Training Manual. Salemburg, NC: North Carolina
Justice Academy, 2004.

Silberman, Mel and Carol Auerback. Active Training. San

Francisco, CA: Jossey-Bass/Pfeiffer, 1998.

Prepared by: Peggy M. Schaefer

NCP Project Director
IADLEST

Date Prepared: May 2019

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Developing Objectives That Will “Bloom” in Your Lesson Plans

Title: Developing Objectives That Will “Bloom” in Your Lesson Plans

I. Introduction

A. Opening Statement

“Your primary role as an instructor is to change the behavior of your

students. That is what training is for. Students will come into your
classroom to improve their present skills or to acquire new skills, and they
will hopefully leave changed.”1 To ensure that you can physically observe
this change, instructors need to monitor student performance. How will
you know if a student learns what you are teaching? What behavioral
measures will you put in place? It all starts with how you phrase your
objectives, which learning domains they will encompass and which action
verbs you will use. Measuring and ensuring change and job transfer isn’t
difficult, if you start on the right path.

B. Training Objectives

C. Reasons

“One reason an instructor should go to the pain of writing good

measurable objectives is because the instructor can be held accountable
for the training session. By writing concrete objectives, you know exactly
what the student should have to do, and better than that, you know if the
student can do it.”2 The instructional period will make more sense to the
student as well. The block will not be a “mystery” to them. They will know
what is expected and what to expect.

“A clear sense of where you want to go, and what you are trying to
accomplish is the single most important ingredient for designing active
training programs.”3

Moreover, students need to be challenged in their training programs to

ensure content mastery. Designing training that incorporates all learning
domains and engages the students is the key to effectiveness! 4

II. Body

A. Training Objectives

“Students will be sent to your class because they lack knowledge and
skills. As an instructor you should have a purpose, a goal or, as we prefer
to call it, an objective that you want your students to accomplish. You may
in fact have several. But regardless of the number, there are certain skills,

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Developing Objectives That Will “Bloom” in Your Lesson Plans

knowledge, information or procedures (objectives) you want your students

to be able to perform when they leave your classroom.”5

1. Reasons for objectives6 7

a) “Outlines and specifies learner’s needs

If there’s a cardinal rule in developing training content, it’s to

keep the learner’s needs front and center.

b) Provides clear expectations

Communicates to the student what is expected in order to

pass the course.

c) Self-assessment throughout training

Helps the student evaluate his own comprehension level of

the material.

d) Provides the instructor with standards for unbiased

evaluation of student comprehension of the information
presented.

e) Provides for evaluation of instruction and identifies

unnecessary content.”

2. How training objectives are used in lesson plans

“A learning objective describes what your learners should be able

to do after they complete your training.”8

a) “Training objectives describe the intended result of

instruction, not the process of instruction or the means of
achieving those results. They are stating the performance
your students will be expected to exhibit to complete your
instruction successfully. These objectives should define for
both the instructor and the student the specific tasks they
should be able to perform after completing this block of
instruction.

b) Training objectives must be definite and specific to give

direction. Vaguely written objectives make it difficult for both
the instructor and student to identify the appropriate methods
to reach the objectives stated or even to understand what
they are expected to accomplish through the instruction.

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Developing Objectives That Will “Bloom” in Your Lesson Plans

c) Well-written, specific objectives also simplify the task of

evaluating whether the objectives have in fact been reached.
Tests constructed from well-written objectives are good
indicators of successful instruction.

d) Clearly written objectives enable students to identify the

specific tasks and level of performance expected of them so
that they may better accomplish the objectives without
having to guess what the instructor is trying to teach. A
successful objective is one that communicates to the reader
the intent of the writer in a clear, concise manner.

e) Objectives should not use words that are open to a wide

range of interpretations, such as: know, understand,
appreciate, etc. Until you clarify these terms by stating what
students must be able to do, you have communicated little
and left your intended goals open to miscommunication.”9 10

f) “Create content that teaches your learners to perform each

of the learning objectives. Likewise, do not add additional
content that doesn’t help your learner perform the objectives.
Resist the temptation to add more information because it’s
‘interesting.’ Remember that in learning, less is more.”11

B. Elements of Effective Training Objectives

“Effective student performance objectives should demonstrate three major

characteristics. These characteristics can be observed when answering
these three questions:

- What should the learner be able to do? (Action)

- What conditions will the performance occur under? (Condition)
- How well must the learner be able to perform? (Standard)

Each objective should describe the (a) do what, (c) with what, and (s) how
well.

It is not always necessary to include all three elements to have a good

objective, but the more of them you include, the better your objective will
communicate your intent.

1. Action (Accomplishment, Performance, Task)

As an instructor you cannot read the mind of the student to verify

the depth of his understanding. Student understanding can only be

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Developing Objectives That Will “Bloom” in Your Lesson Plans

determined through measurable and observable activity. This type

of activity may be visible, such as writing, repairing, stopping a
motor vehicle, conducting a building search or gathering crime
scene evidence from a seized computer; or invisible such as
solving, identifying, adding, reciting or analyzing a problem.
Knowledge, appreciation or understanding can only be measured
by observing students perform a task demonstrating the meaning of
these abstract terms.

The element of action in an objective describes what the student

will be able to do to demonstrate that he has achieved the
objective. It is the behavior that will be accepted as evidence that
the student has learned.

Sentences that do not state or require an action or performance are

not effective objectives.

2. Condition

The condition describes the situation in which the student will be

required to demonstrate the performance behavior. The condition
clearly states the limits and circumstances within which the student
will be expected to perform the required task. A performance
condition could refer to a specific environment in which the student
will be placed, or specific tools, equipment, books, references, etc.,
that the student will be given or denied when they perform the
objective. Conditions state the circumstances under which the task
must be performed.

a) Environment refers to:

(1) Street condition

(2) Classroom

(3) Range (night firing)

(4) Building

b) Equipment refers to:

(1) Firearm (fully equipped)

(2) Handcuffs

(3) Baton

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(4) Reference books

(5) Ruler

c) Situation refers to:

(1) Role play

(2) Hypothetical situation, i.e., building search, vehicle

stop, etc.

A condition states HOW a specific task will be performed and the

circumstances under which the performance will occur.

3. Standard (Criterion)

The standard is the yardstick by which achievement of the

objectives is assessed. It is the minimal acceptable
performance that the student must achieve. In other words,
HOW WELL must the student be able to perform the given task.
The standard is the quantity, quality and speed at which the student
will be required to perform the given task. Standards give an
instrument of measure against which you can weigh and test your
instruction and the student’s performance.

a) Speed/Time

One method of setting a standard is to set a time limit on

performance. The time given could be seconds, minutes,
hours, days, etc.

EXAMPLES:
- Within 10 minutes
- Within 30 seconds
- In less than 2 hours

b) Quantity

How much must the student achieve? Quantity specifies the

minimum number of correct answers or responses which are
acceptable, the number of errors allowed, the number of
repetitions required or the number of principles to be applied
or identified in a given situation. Quantity may also require
percentages of proportions.

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Developing Objectives That Will “Bloom” in Your Lesson Plans

EXAMPLES:
- Correctly answer 14 questions
- Solve at least two cases of unsolved murders
- Correctly answer 15 out of 20 problems
- With no more than four errors
- All 35
- Error free
- 85% correct

c) Quality/Accuracy

How well must the student perform the task? This type of
standard defines the quality of acceptable performance in
more detail. Quality defines the important characteristics or
attributes of a required performance which will be expected
of the student. If the phrase emphasizes the excellence of
the action, it is a standard.

EXAMPLES:
- According to the PRN procedure
- Without creating service interruptions
- Using all safety rules while performing
- Accurately, properly, correctly, appropriately, safely, etc.
- Accurately to the nearest whole number
- In sequential order

Standards may be written using any one of these measures or if

needed to specify performance levels, all three may be used.

4. Still confused about whether your objective is a condition or a

standard?

Sometimes we tend to use phrases that are easily intermingled

when we try to decide whether the phrase should be called a
‘condition’ or a ‘standard.’ In these situations, ask yourself if the
phrase says anything about the excellence of performance which
will be expected of the student. If it does, the phrase is a
‘standard.’ Phrases which specify givens, restrictions, equipment
or props are ‘conditions.’”12 13 14 15 16

C. Domains of Learning

As you begin to write instructional objectives, you might find it helpful to

refer to some frame of reference that clarifies the various types of
outcomes to consider. This will provide greater assurance that important

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objectives are not overlooked. Many curriculum designers describe these

three domains or categories of learning: “learning about things you can
‘know,’ learning about things you can ‘do,’ and learning about things you
‘feel.’ These are called the Cognitive domain, the psychomotor domain
and the Affective domain. They are also referred to as Knowledge, Skills
and Attitudes. Trainers often call these ‘KSAs’ for short.”17

Or you can remember these major types of learning as “A-B-C.”

1. Affective

“Affective learning includes the fostering of attitudes, feelings, and

preferences. For example, you may want your students to value a
certain situation, procedure, or piece of equipment. Or you may
wish them to become more aware of their feelings and reactions to
certain issues and new ideas.

“Attitudinal goals, therefore, are those that ask a learner

to choose to do something under certain circumstances. The intent
of attitudinal training is to influence or persuade a person to make a
decision in the desired direction. It may involve changing attitudes
as well as associated feelings, values, motivations and beliefs.”18

2. Behavioral

Behavioral learning includes the development of competence in the

actual performance of procedures, operations, methods and
techniques.

Behavioral goals are the priority when there is a lack of skill. This is
often referred to as a “can’t do” situation.

3. Cognitive

Cognitive learning includes the acquisition of information and

concepts related to course content. You may want your students to
not only comprehend the subject matter, but also to analyze it and
apply it to new situations.

Cognitive goals are the priority when there is a lack of knowledge.

This is often referred to as a “don’t know” situation.

Although it is possible to design your training program with only one of

these types of learning in mind, a design that incorporates all three is

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more likely to result in lasting change. Even a relatively short course can
include affective, behavioral and cognitive objectives.”19 20 21

D. Levels of Objectives22 23 24 25 26

1. Bloom’s taxonomy

“Benjamin Bloom’s taxonomy of educational objectives has been

widely accepted since 1950. Most teaching at the cognitive level
involves some combination of the six categories or levels of
objectives provided by Bloom. As indicated in the list outlined for
you, the levels become increasingly complex and difficult to specify,
attain, and evaluate as you progress from one to six.”

a) Recall and recognize information

An objective written to gauge student knowledge is in this

first level. “This involves your students’ committing to
memory, facts, theories and principles. This would be your
basic level objective. You would use such words as list,
define, state the principle of conversion of mass; recite the
Miranda warning, etc.”

b) Comprehension/Translation

“These objectives imply that you want the student to report

back to you something he has learned but through an
alternative or different means; i.e., to restate in your own
words, to describe the principle of; to review; to explore the
meaning of . . .. As an instructor you are looking for more
than simple recall from your students.”

c) Application

“Application refers to the use of learned information to solve

a problem. This means carrying over knowledge of facts or
methods learned in one specific context to completely new
ones.” Here the student must take facts learned about a
topic area and apply them. Examples include: given a role-
play of an arrest situation, identify the correct and incorrect
use of the Miranda warning; operate the blue lights on a
patrol vehicle; sketch a crime scene.

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d) Analysis

“Taking learned information apart. Analysis means figuring

out a subject matter’s most elemental ideas and their
interrelationships.” Examples include: to differentiate
between; to calculate; to test; to compare/contrast; to solve.

e) Synthesis

This is a process of working with elements, parts, etc., and

combining them in such a way as to constitute a pattern or
structure not there before.

“Generally, it is a recombination of parts of previous

experiences with new material, reconstructed into a new
whole. This category allows the student to be creative and
show original thought.” Examples include: to design an
original piece of art; to compose music or poetry; to research
and determine new results; to organize a new system for
investigating complaints.

f) Evaluation

“Evaluation is defined as ‘making judgments about the value,

for some purpose, of ideas, works, solutions, methods,
materials, etc.’ It involves the use of criteria as well as
standards for appraising the extent to which particulars are
accurate, effective, economical or satisfying. Evaluation
encompasses to some extent all the other categories.
Examples include: to evaluate; to rate; to select the best
features of; to estimate and measure.

2. Putting all six levels together

“Knowing the levels of objectives and the domain of learning can be

very useful in reminding you of the range or levels of objectives.
Knowing the domain of learning which a given objective addresses
will assist you in selecting the appropriate performance words to
describe your intent as well as the start of test items that might be
appropriate.

As you begin to write your training objectives, you might keep the
following questions in mind to help you determine what level of
objectives you are striving for:

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a) Does the block of instruction seek to encourage

comprehension and application of basic principles? For
example, do you want our students to apply the laws of
arrest, search and seizure (application), or do you want them
to recite (recall) them?

b) Do you want to teach students skills involving critical

thinking, evaluation or creativity (synthesis) or do you want
them to define or restate someone’s theory of law
(translation)?

c) Do you want to develop tolerance or active sensitivity in your

students (evaluation) or do you want them to determine the
differences between concepts (analysis)?

d) Do you want to encourage values or attitudes, or to bring

about change in a viewpoint (evaluation) or do you want
them to provide their values to other examples
(synthesis)?”27

3. A newer version of Bloom’s taxonomy28 29

“In 2000/2001 Bloom's Taxonomy was revised. Originally, the

categories were listed as nouns, like ‘knowledge.’ The 2001
revision simply turned the nouns into verbs. The six revised
categories are:

a) Remembering
b) Understanding
c) Applying
d) Analyzing
e) Evaluating
f) Creating

The tasks associated with each level remained the same, except
that "creating" is now believed to take place at a higher cognitive
level than evaluation, or synthesis. Basically, levels 5 and 6
swapped places in the Revised Taxonomy. Both versions of
Bloom's Taxonomy are still in use.”

The goal for our instruction should be to challenge our students at

the highest levels we can. We must push to the application and
creation levels that more closely reflect their current job
responsibilities.

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4. Choosing activities at each level30

Once you have determined the appropriate “action” verb for your
lesson plans, then you can choose the best activities to reinforce
your content. In your handout, is a rubric that can help you make
those decisions.

5. Practical exercise time

6. Writing law enforcement related objectives

Think of a traditional police function conducted daily by patrol

officers. There are procedures and guidelines that should be
followed by officers from the moment they are dispatched, through
the arrival and completing the call. Apply Bloom’s taxonomy and
write one objective at each level outlining the activities required by
officers.

III. Conclusion

A. Summary

During this workshop we have explored the elements of an effective

objective, i.e., action, condition and standard, and learned how to apply
these elements when writing training objectives. We also discovered how
learning domains influence the type of objective we construct and the
value of planning the level of learning we want our students to achieve
using Bloom’s taxonomy.

B. Questions from Class

C. Closing Statement

It is generally agreed that students should share responsibility for their

own learning. Objectives tell the students what the learning outcomes
should be and provides criteria that can be used to judge the total learning
process. When objectives are not provided, the student must guess what
the instructor expects and usually guesses wrong.”31 Instructors are
certainly responsible for ensuring that each student leaves the training
experience with the full knowledge to be able to apply what they learned,
transfer it to another situation and then evaluate their decision making
and actions. If we fail to do this during our classroom segment, then we
will have failed our students.

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NOTES

1 Georgia Cloutier et al., “Lesson Plan Preparation: Format and Objectives,”

Instructor Training Manual (Salemburg, NC: North Carolina Justice Academy, 1996), 5.
2 Ibid.
3Mel Silberman and Carol Auerback, Active Training (San Francisco, CA:
Jossey-Bass/Pfeiffer, 1998), 37.
4 Northwest Center for Public Health Practice. “Effective Adult Learning: A
Toolkit for Teaching Adults.” University of Washington School of Public Health, 2014,
13.
5 Cloutier et al., 5-7.
6Norman Gronlund. How to Write and Use Instructional Objectives (Upper
Saddle River, NJ: Prentice Hall, Inc., 2000), 5.
7
Jeffrey Dalto. “Creating Learning Objectives: The Ultimate Guide to Writing
Learning Objectives for Training Materials.” Convergence Training. March 2014. [On-
line]. Available at: https://www.convergencetraining.com/download/learning-objectives-
web.pdf [January 11, 2019], 3.
8 Ibid., 2.
9 Cloutier et al., 7-8.
10
William Rothwell, Mastering the Design Process (San Francisco, CA: Jossey-
Bass Publishers, 1992), 130-131.
11 Dalto, 2.
12 Cloutier et al., 8-11.
13 Rothwell, 132-136.
14Robert Mager, Making Instruction Work (Atlanta, GA: The Center for Effective
Performance, 1997), 75.
15 Dalto, 7 – 8.
16 Northwest Center for Public Health Practice, 18.
17 Dalto, 11.

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18 Connie Malamed. “A Quick Guide to Attitudinal Training.” The E-Learning

Coach. 2019. [On-line]. Available at
http://theelearningcoach.com/elearning_design/attitudinal-training/ [March 3, 2019]. 1.
19 Silberman and Auerback, 38-40.
20Steve Cartwright and Phillip Cartwright, Designing and Producing Media-
Based Training (Woburn, MA: Butterworth-Heinemann, 1999), 32-33.
21 Rothwell, 129.
22 Cloutier et al., 12-13.
23 Silberman and Auerback, 44.
24
Benjamin Bloom, Taxonomy of Educational Objectives: Cognitional Affective
Domains (White Plains, NY: Longnam, Inc., 1956), 62-193.
25 Gronlund, 112.
26 Dalto, 12.
27 Cloutier et al., 13.
28 Alatalo Sari. “Critical Thinking: From Teaching to Theory.” EPooki. February 6,
2015. [On-line]. Available at: http://www.oamk.fi/epooki/2015/critical-thinking-theory-
teaching/?ccm_paging_p_b1802=3 [March 3, 2019.]
29 Natasha, Hoover. “What is the Importance of Studying Bloom’s Taxonomy of
the Cognitive Domain?” HubPages. July 30, 2013. [On-line]. Available at
https://hubpages.com/education/Blooms-Taxonomy-of-the-Cognitive-Domains [March 1,
2019], 1.
30ANSI/IACET 1-2013, Standard for Continuing Education and Training, 2013
IACET, 21.
31 Ibid., 21-22.

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