Developing Learning Objectives

The Three Main Characteristics of Good Learning Objectives

1. Objectives should identify a learning outcome - An objective which states, "the student will learn Maslow's Hierarchy of Needs by studying pages 100 to 115" refers not to an outcome of instruction but to an activity of learning. The objective needs to state what the learner is to perform, not how the learner learns. Evidence of whether the learner has learned the material lies not in watching her read about it but in listening to her explain the principles in her own words.

2. Objectives should be consistent with course goals - For example, including an objective about the history of personal computers in a word processing course does not match the stated course goal of "to correctly use and understand Microsoft Word." Trainers sometimes try to teach what they think is important or like to teach instead of what the learners need to know. When objectives and goals are not consistent, two avenues of approach are available: change (or eliminate) the objective, or change the course goal.

3. Objectives should be precise - It's sometimes difficult to strike a balance between too much and too little precision in an objective. There is a fine line between choosing objectives that reflect an important and meaningful outcome of instruction, objectives that trivialize information into isolated facts, and objectives that are extremely vague. Remember, the purpose of an objective is to give different people the same understanding of the desired instructional outcome.

The Learner	Action	Content
The learner will be able	To write	A news story using three different types of leads
The student will be able	To express	Her attitudes and feelings about creating messages for diverse populations
The enrollee will be able	To compare	The characteristics of media systems in the countries studied
The class participant will be able	To plan	The media placement decisions and media budget for an advertising client

In developing learning objectives, people sometimes have difficulty coming up with a variety of action words that fit each category of learning outcomes. To assist staff in this task, a sampling of such words is given below (Rothwell and Kazanas, 1992, Tracey, 1992):

Acquisition of Knowledge	Enhancement of Thinking Skills	Development of Psychomotor Skills	Changes in Attitudes, Values, and/or Feelings
To identify	To reflect	To demonstrate	To challenge
To list	To compare	To produce	To defend
To define	To contrast	To assemble	To judge
To describe	To catalogue	To adjust	To question
To state	To classify	To install	To accept
To prepare	To evaluate	To operate	To adopt
To recall	To forecast	To detect	To advocate
To express	To formulate	To locate	To bargin
To categorize	To investigate	To isolate	To cooperate
To chart	To modify	To arrange	To endorse
To rank	To organize	To build	To justify
To distinguish	To plan	To conduct	To persuade
To explain	To research	To check	To resolve
To outline	To study	To manipulate	To select
To inform	To translate	To fix	To dispute
To label	To differentiate	To lay out	To approve
To specify	To analyze	To perform	To choose
To tell	To compute	To sort	To feel
To write	To devise	To construct	To care
	To review	To draw	To express
			To reflect

Caffarella, R.S. Planning Programs For Adult Learners: A Practical Guide for Educators, Trainers and Staff Developers, Jossey-Bass Publishers: San Francisco, 1994.

When developing learning objectives, consider:

Good learning objectives are neither so narrowly stated that they represent the intended curriculum mechanically, nor so generally stated that they give little clarity to the intended goals.
Objectives should not discourage creativity on the part of either instructor or learner, nor should they take away the need for the instructor to communicate the "challenge" of studying and learning to students.
Other dangers to be aware of are objectives that insult students’ intelligence, that are restricted to lower-level cognitive skills, or that result in over concentration on small details of the content that cause students to miss the "big picture."
Ambiguous objectives -- such as "The students will understand what makes good theater"-- are not especially useful. Referring to a specific behavior or ability that the instructor wants the students to gain as a result of the instruction would be more useful.

Examples:

Theater students will list Smith’s five criteria for the evaluation of a play and give a rationale for each. (lower-level objective -- knowledge)
Theater students will apply Smith’s five criteria to the evaluation of a play and present a rational for their evaluations. (higher-level objective -- evaluation)

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