Hello, and thank you for joining me today for constructing learning objectives. By the end of today's tutorial, we will be able to answer the following essential questions. What are the different types of learning objectives? What are the parts of learning objectives? And how do you construct cognitive, affective, and psychomotor learning objectives?
Let's begin by talking about the different types of learning objectives. There are three types. The first is cognitive. And this is essentially what we see in the material that we teach. So these are related to mental processes, and they involve thinking. So you might see some language such as recall and understanding when you're writing a learning objective.
Then you have psychomotor learning objectives. And these are the actions that we want students to do. It's the skill that they're going to demonstrate. It's the physical skill that they're going to demonstrate. Some examples are serving a volleyball or dissecting a frog.
And lastly, we have affective. These are not as easy to measure as the other two types of objectives because they have to do with attitudes, appreciation, and relationships with others. So an example of an affective objective might look like this. Given the opportunity to work in collaborative groups with three other classmates, students will demonstrate the ability to take turns sufficiently as measured by a peer review checklist completed by team members.
It's important to look at how objectives interact in our 21st-century world full of technology. And cognitive objectives fit with technology the easiest out of all of the different types of objectives that we've talked about. However, it's still important to have a balance between the three different types of objectives and to make sure that we are still addressing psychomotor and affective objectives with technology.
So there are simulation programs that can help develop affective skills. And another example of using technology to help with affective skills is using technology for classroom collaboration. There's also technology out there that helps with psychomotor skills, such as a virtual frog dissection program.
Let's look at what I call the ABCDs of objective writing. So A is Audience. It's the who. Who Is doing the work? Typically, this is going to be the students who are doing the work. Then we have behavior, which is what exactly do I want the students to produce? What is the product I want from them?
And then we have the condition. Under what circumstances should the students be able to perform? And lastly, we have degree. What is the criteria for an acceptable performance? This might look like a rubric or a checklist, et cetera.
So let's look at how we construct these objectives. And we're going to start with constructing cognitive objectives. For all of the objectives, we really begin by looking at hierarchies or taxonomies.
So for cognitive objectives, we want to look at Bloom's taxonomy. And I've created a graphic here that you can pause and look more closely. Bloom's taxonomy moves from the lower order thinking skills of remember all the way to the higher order thinking skills of create. When you're creating cognitive objectives, you want to try to use the same language that's in the taxonomy.
So an example might be students will compare and contrast two genres of writing on the same topic. Compare and contrast correlates with the analyze band of Bloom's taxonomy. Another example is list the 13 original colonies. This correlates with the remember band of Bloom's taxonomy.
When constructing affective objectives, you're also going to look at a hierarchy. This hierarchy was developed by Krathwhol. And it's a taxonomy for the affective domain specifically. On the lower level, we have receiving. And then we continue up that pyramid until we get to characterisation by value.
So you want to, again, try to use these verbs when writing the objectives. An example is students will cooperate with one another when collaborating. This corresponds with the responding band of the taxonomy. And the students will defend their findings when presenting them to an authentic audience. This has to do with the valuing band.
When you're constructing psychomotor objectives, there's actually several domains you can use made popular through the years by Simpson, in 1972; Dave, in 1970; and Harrow, in 1972. However, the common levels include observing, imitating, practicing, and adapting. And again this goes from the lower level practices to the higher level practices.
Some examples are students will perform a monologue for the class. This has to do with imitating. Another is the students will measure various liquids to determine their volume. And this correlates with practicing.
Let's reflect. Think of your own objectives. Do they use verbs reflective of the various taxonomies? To review, today we discussed what are the different types of learning objectives, what are the parts of the learning objectives, and how do you construct cognitive, affective, and psychomotor learning objectives.
As you reflect on how this new information can be applied, you may want to explore the Additional Resources section that accompanies this video presentation. This is where you'll find links to resources chosen to help you deepen your learning and explore ways to apply your newly acquired skill set. Thanks for joining me and happy teaching.
Overview
(00:00-00:20) Introduction
(00:21-02:17) Types of Learning Objectives
(02:18-02:49) The ABCDs of Objective Writing
(02:50-03:41) Constructing Cognitive Objectives
(03:42-04:20) Constructing Affective Objectives
(04:21-04:57) Constructing Psychomotor Objectives
(04:58-05:07) Reflection
(05:08-05:36) Conclusion
Student Learning S.M.A.R.T Goals & Objectives
This presentation from the Eugene School District in Oregon provides a step by step how-to on developing SMART goals connected to learning targets and objectives. The presentation also includes example templates that have been completed as models.
http://www.4j.lane.edu/wp-content/uploads/2013/04/4J_HR_TE_Student-Learning-Goals-Objective-Goals1-2.pdf