When writing objectives, the teacher must write from a student learning orientation, which is why so many formats begin with the stem, “The students will…” Any statement indicating teacher behaviors, e.g. “The teacher will instruct students to play the concert Bb scale,” is a procedure rather than a learning objective. While there is a student behavior embedded in the statement (playing the concert Bb scale), the focus is on a teacher outcome (instruct) versus a student learning outcome.
Using behaviorist objectives*, the students in a lesson must demonstrate something (and therefore ostensibly demonstrate learning), so the stem (“The students will”) should be followed by an active verb that indicates an observable action (“play, sing, move, tap, clap, articulate, balance, tune, etc.”). The conceptual or informational content of the objective follows this verb, perhaps along with criteria that designate levels of success. The following provide examples of learning objectives. Critique each; some are better than others:
- The teacher will assess students on their abilities to perform articulation styles in the first movement of Holst’s First Suite in Eb for Military Band.
- Students will understand how to perform articulation in the first movement of Holst’s First Suite in Eb for Military Band.
- Students will demonstrate understanding of how to perform articulation in the first movement of Holst’s First Suite in Eb for Military Band.
- Students will perform varied articulation on their instruments in the first movement of Holst’s First Suite in Eb for Military Band.
- Students will accurately perform legato, staccato, and marcato styles of articulation on their instruments in the first movement of Holst’s First Suite in Eb for Military Band.
Each objective offers easily identified content, although some are more specific than others. But many have other issues regarding format and wording. We can discount Example 1 as it details a teacher behavior rather than a learning outcome (“Teacher assesses”). Example 2 offers a student orientation, but uses an ambiguous verb in terms of observable behavior (“understand”). In behaviorist terms, we cannot know if students understand until they demonstrate that understanding in an observable way. The use of “demonstrate” in Example 3 addresses this criticism, but the wording becomes awkward and somewhat unclear in doing so. Example 4 serves as a decent, fundamental objective, but Example 5 offers much better specificity in terms of the content of what students will do. More detail in such a short-term objective will facilitate the writing of procedures and assessments. A well-written objective does not necessarily equate to an appropriate objective for a specific class or student. What stands as an appropriate daily objective for one group many require several weeks of preparation or more for different students. A teacher must identify his students’ abilities and needs in order to properly write objectives that they can reasonably accomplish in the identified time frame.
*I address this type of objective in this post as this format is quite ubiquitous in public education. There are certainly other options for writing objectives.