Writing Educational Goals and Objectives
This information was retrieved from (http://www.personal.psu.edu/bxb11/Objectives/index.htm) on December 9, 2007
and was constructed by Brett Bixler at Penn State University (bxb11@psu.edu)


What are Goals?


What are Instructional Objectives?


Common Types of Objectives


Tips for Writing Objectives

Objectives should specify four main things:

This is often called the ABCD's of objectives, a nice mnemonic aid!


Examples of Well-written Objectives

Audience - Green
Behavior - Red
Condition - Blue
Degree - Pink

Psychomotor - "Given a standard balance beam raised to a standard height, the student (attired in standard balance beam usage attire) will be able to walk the entire length of the balance beam (from one end to the other) steadily, without falling off, and within a six second time span."

Cognitive (comprehension level) - "Given examples and non-examples of constructivist activities in a college classroom, the student will be able to accurately identify the constructivist examples and explain why each example is or isn't a constructivist activity in 20 words or less."

Cognitive (application level) - "Given a sentence written in the past or present tense, the student will be able to re-write the sentence in future tense with no errors in tense or tense contradiction (i.e., I will see her yesterday.)."

Cognitive (problem solving/synthesis level) - "Given two cartoon characters of the student's choice, the student will be able to list five major personality traits of each of the two characters, combine these traits (either by melding traits together, multiplying together complimentary traits, or negating opposing traits) into a composite character, and develop a short (no more than 20 frames) storyboard for a cartoon that illustrates three to five of the major personality traits of the composite character."

Affective - "Given the opportunity to work in a team with several people of different races, the student will demonstrate an positive increase in attitude towards non-discrimination of race, as measured by a checklist utilized/completed by non-team members."

If you're paying attention here, you'll notice two things:

See how these specific objectives were used to develop assessment instruments.


Typical Problems Encountered When Writing Objectives

Problems
Error Types
Solutions
Too vast/complex The objective is too broad in scope or is actually more than one objective. Simplify/break apart.
False/missing behavior, condition, or degree The objective does not list the correct behavior, condition, and/or degree, or they are missing. Be more specific, make sure the behavior, condition, and degree is included.
False givens Describes instruction, not conditions Simplify, include ONLY ABCDs.
False performance No true overt, observable performance listed. Describe what behavior you must observe.

 


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This site last updated 1-11-06.

Questions? Contact Brett Bixler