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What are Goals?

Goals are broad, generalized statements about what is to be learned. Think of them as a target to be reached, or "hit."

What are learning objectives?

• Instructional objectives are specific, measurable, short-term, observable student behaviors. They indicate the desirable knowledge, skills, or attitudes to be gained.
• Objectives are the foundation upon which you can build lessons and assessments that you can prove meet your overall course or lesson goals.

• Think of objectives as tools you use to make sure you reach your goals. They are the arrows you shoot towards your target (goal).
• The purpose of objectives is not to restrict spontaneity or constrain the vision of education in the discipline; but to ensure that learning is focused clearly enough that both students and teacher know what is going on, and so learning can be objectively measured. Different archers have different styles, so do different teachers. Thus, you can shoot your arrows (objectives) many ways. The important thing is that they reach your target (goals) and score that bullseye!

Common types of learning objectives

Cognitive

Cognitive objectives relate to understandings, awareness, insights (e.g., "Given a description of a planet, the student will be able to identify that planet, as demonstrated verbally or in writing." or "The student will be able to evaluate the different theories of the origin of the solar system as demonstrated by his/her ability to compare and discuss verbally or in writing the strengths and weaknesses of each theory."). This includes knowledge or information recall, comprehension or conceptual understanding, the ability to apply knowledge, the ability to analyze a situation, the ability to synthesize information from a given situation, and the ability to evaluate a given situation.

Read more on Blooms' Taxonomy of cognitive objectives.

Affective

Attitudes, appreciations, relationships (e.g., "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.").

Read more on the affective domain.

Psychomotor

These are Physical skills (e.g., "The student will be able to ride a two-wheel bicycle without assistance and without pause as demonstrated in gym class."); actions which demonstrate the fine motor skills such as use of precision instruments or tools, or actions which evidence gross motor skills such as the use of the body in dance or athletic performance.

Read more on the psychomotor domain.

Different levels of learning objectives

For each course, you probably have an overall goal: what do you want the students to accomplish in this course? In addition, you should have several objectives for each major topic in your course. You can also then break each objective into several sub-objectives, and so on, to clarify specifically what students will learn.

Different levels of objectives can also be categorized according to different levels of learning that you want the students to achieve. That is, whether you want the students to remember factual information, distinguish among the concepts, apply rules/principles, or do problem solving, these expectations should be expressed as different types of objectives (Dwyer, 1991).

The above graphic (Adapted from Dwyer) shows a hierarchy of learning. In order for the students to learn concepts, they should have a basic supporting knowledge, e.g., facts. In order to problem-solve, students need to understand concepts and rules, etc.

In summary, goals and objectives guide all teaching, learning and assessment.

References

Additional Links

• Boxes and Arrows: Improving Learning Objectives
• Instructional System Design
• Learning Domains
• How to Write Learning Objectives