INSTRUCTIONAL GOALS

AND OBJECTIVES

Foundation for Assessment

From Overly Specific Objectives to the

Thinking Curriculum

Analyze learning outcomes in small and specific

skills

Learning was conceptualized as being quite

hierarchical

1920s 1980s

From Overly Specific Objectives to the

Thinking Curriculum

“essential skills”

higher-order skills

mastery of skills

From Overly Specific Objectives to the

Thinking Curriculum

Highly specific objectives:

Enabled the construction of precise test objectives

Provided a natural basis for developing “criterion-

referenced mastery test”

The behavioral objectives used to construct such were

typically concerned with relatively simple knowledge and

skill outcomes.

From Overly Specific Objectives to the

Thinking Curriculum

State the task

Teach the task

Test the task

Learning tasks are sequential in order.

From Overly Specific Objectives to the

Thinking Curriculum

From Overly Specific Objectives to the

Thinking Curriculum

Cognitive research has discredited the notion that

basic skills must be learned before higher-level

thinking, reasoning, and problem-solving skills can

be learned.

From Overly Specific Objectives to the

Thinking Curriculum

Implications for assessment

The types of instructional

objectives are concerned with

the more complex learning

outcomes

The perspective suggests the

need for more comprehensive

tasks that involve extended

periods of time

Tasks need to be presented in a

meaningful context; that is, they need to

involve “authentic” problem

From Overly Specific Objectives to the

Thinking Curriculum

Two ends of the continuum

Highly specific objectives General learning

goals

From Overly Specific Objectives to the

Thinking Curriculum

In practice, neither extreme is apt to be entirely satisfactory

as a guide to the development or selection of assessments.

• Overemphasis on disconnected low-level skills and factual knowledge

Specific discrete

skills

• Too general a level to provide a adequate guidance for the development or selection of assessments that will have desirable measurement properties

Broad cognitive process

Types of Learning Outcomes to Consider

General goals need to be supplemented by more

systematic thinking about the types of learning

outcomes that would provide evidence that the

goals are being achieved.

Types of Learning Outcomes to Consider

Classification of learning outcomes under a few

general headings:

Indicates types of learning outcomes that should be

considered

Provides a framework for classifying those outcomes

Directs attention toward changes in student

performance in a variety of areas

Taxonomy of Educational Objectives

Three Major Areas:

Cognitive Domain – knowledge outcomes and

intellectual abilities and skills

Affective Domain – attitudes, interests, appreciation,

and modes of adjustment

Psychomotor Domain – perceptual and motor skills

These categories begin with relatively simple

knowledge outcomes and proceed through

increasingly complex levels of intellectual ability.

Taxonomy of Educational Objectives

Cognitive Domain:

Knowledge – remembering of previously learned

material; lowest level of learning outcomes in the

cognitive domain

Comprehension – ability to grasp the meaning of

material; go one step beyond the simple remembering

of material and represent the lowest level of

understanding

Application – ability to use learned material in new

and concrete situations; require a higher level of

understanding than those under comprehension

Taxonomy of Educational Objectives

Analysis – ability to break down material into its

component parts so that its organizational structure may

be understood; represent a higher intellectual level

than comprehension and application because they

require an understanding of both the content and the

structural form of the material

Synthesis – ability to put parts together to form a new

whole; stress creative behaviors, with major emphasis

on the formulation of new patterns or structures

Taxonomy of Educational Objectives

Evaluation – ability to judge the value of material for

a given purpose; highest in the cognitive hierarchy

because they contain elements of all of the other

categories plus value judgments based on clearly

defined criteria

Taxonomy of Educational Objectives

Affective Domain:

Receiving – student’s willingness to attend particular

phenomena or stimuli; lowest level in the affective

domain

Responding – active participation on the part of the

student; higher levels of this category include objectives

that are commonly classified under interest

Taxonomy of Educational Objectives

Valuing – worth or value a student attaches to a

particular object, phenomenon, or behavior; based on

the internalization of a set of specified values, but clues

to these values are expressed in the student’s overt

behavior

Organization – bringing together different values,

resolving conflicts between them, and beginning the

building of an internally consistent value system;

concerned with the conceptualization of a value or with

the organization of a value system

Taxonomy of Educational Objectives

Characterization by a Value or Value Complex – the

individual has a value system that has controlled his

behavior for a sufficiently long time for him to have

developed a characteristic lifestyle; major emphasis is

on the fact that the behavior is typical or characteristic

of the student

Taxonomy of Educational Objectives

Psychomotor Domain:

Perception – use of the sense organs to obtain cues that

guide motor activity

Set – readiness to take a particular type of action

Guided Response – concerned with the early stages in

learning a complex skill

Mechanism – performance acts where the learned

response has become habitual and the movements can

be performed with some confidence and proficiency

Taxonomy of Educational Objectives

Complex Overt Response – skillful performance of

motor acts that involve complex movement patterns

Adaptation – skills that are so well developed that the

individual can modify movement patterns to fit special

requirements or to meet a problem situation

Origination – creating of new movement patterns to fit

a particular situation or specific problem