Instructional & Behavioral Objectives

University of Rhode IslandEDC 452

“A statement of what students ought to be able to do as a consequence of instruction”. (Goodlad)”

What is an Educational Objective?

“What the students should be able to do at the end of a learning period that they could not do beforehand. An objective is a description of a performance you want learners to be able to exhibit before you consider them competent. An objective describes an intended result of instruction, rather than the process of instruction itself." (Mager)

What is an Educational Objective?

“Properly constructed education objectives represent relatively specific statements about what students should be able to do following instruction.” (Gallagher and Smith)

What is an Educational Objective?

1. Cognitive Domain ◦ Refers to intellectual learning and problem solving

◦ Cognitive levels of learning include: knowledge, comprehension, application, analysis, synthesis, and evaluation.

3 Domains for Objectives

2. Affective Domain ◦ Refers to the emotions and value system of a

person

◦ Affective levels of learning include: receiving, responding, valuing, organizing, and characterizing by a value.

3 Domains for Objectives

3. Psychomotor Domain ◦ Refers to physical movement characteristics and

motor skill capabilities that involve behaviors requiring certain levels of physical dexterity and coordination. These skills are developed through repetitive practice and measured in terms of speed, precision, distance, procedures, or execution techniques.

◦ Psychomotor levels include: perception, set, guided response, mechanism, complex overt response, adaptation, and origination.

3 Domains for Objectives

1a: Students will correctly use future tense in writing.

Examples

1a: Students will correctly use future tense in writing by re-writing a given a sentence (in the past or present tense) in future tense with no errors in tense or tense contradiction.

Examples

2a: Students will demonstrate social understanding skills.

Examples

2a: Students will demonstrate social understanding skills by raising their hand and waiting to be called on before talking aloud in group settings; working cooperatively with peers in small group settings; developing an understanding of the relationship between his/her verbalizations and actions/effect on others; and engaging in appropriate cooperative social play interactions initiated by others.

Examples

Students will compare and contrast two or more versions of the same story (e.g., Cinderella stories) by different authors or from different cultures.

Common Core Reading Standards for Literature K–5 (2nd Grade)

Examples