Intro | Writing Objectives | Identifying Objectives | Summary

Introduction

In instructional situations, research suggests that students perform better if they have a clear understanding of what is expected of them. Instructors should communicate what students are to know and be able to do as a result of the instruction. Such statements are known as Performance Objectives.

Mager (1975) first coined the phrase Behavioral Objective to describe what learners should be able to do as a result of instruction. Some educators argue strongly against this orientation, associating the phrase with antiquated behavioral learning theories and approaches. Therefore, like Dick, Carey, and Carey (2015), we’ve substituted the word Behavioral with Performance that may be a more acceptable term. Additional adjectives used to label what learners are expected to know include Instructional, Subordinate and Learning Objectives. In corporate settings, educators sometime distinguish learning objectives (acquiring skills and knowledge through training) from performance objectives (application of skills and knowledge on-the-job).

For the purposes of this course, we will use the terms Terminal and Enabling objectives. Terminal objectives describe what learners can do when they complete a unit of instruction and are typically derived from a goal analysis. In comparison, enabling objectives describe the sub-skills, knowledge or attitudes learners require to achieve the terminal objective and are derived from subordinate skills analyses.

Dick, Carey, and Carey (2015) identified two major problems with performance objectives. First, without well-defined analysis techniques, instructors found it difficult to define objectives. With little to no training on goal and subordinate skills analyses, instructors often reverted to textbooks, their prior experiences or others to identify topics for which to write objectives. As a result, many trivial and abstractly related objectives were written. Second, without an overall systematic design process, instructors did not know what to do with the objectives once they were written. Instructors often listed objectives to help focus learners’ attention but did little else to align instruction or assessment with the objectives. Educators raise additional objections to the use of behavioral objectives. They argue that objectives: (a) reduce instruction to such small discrete components that learners often lose the “trees from the forest”; (b) limit class discussions and student learning, and (c) could not be written for some areas such as the humanities. Performance objectives communicate to learners what is expected of them and help them to focus their efforts. They are also used as a basis for determining assessment methods and instruments, as well as to help guide the development of instructional strategies and the selection of media.

Unit 4 consists of two main sections:

• Writing Performance Objectives; and
• Identifying, Clustering, and Sequencing Performance Objectives.

It should take you and your team approximately 4-6hrs to complete this unit.

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Writing Performance Objectives

Given a list of animals, 10^th grade students will be able to list ten names of invertebrates with 80% accuracy.

The above statement contains the essential components of an objective. The components are what we call the A, B, C, and D’s of performance objectives (i.e., audience, behavior, condition, and degree). There are other forms of objectives that contain fewer or more components than the one covered here, but for the purposes of this course, we will stay with the basic four-component model. In the course textbook, Dick, Carey, and Carey (2015) cover three of the four components in detail (i.e., behavior, condition, and criteria, pp. 120-125). This section review the three components discussed by Dick, Carey, and Carey and elaborates on the fourth component-Audience.

• Audience
• Behavior
• Condition
• Degree

Audience

One of the four basic components of an objective is the Audience. The target population who is expected to complete the objective should be defined. Examples of the audience could be: students, faculty, managers, or fifth-grade boys/girls.

We believe that it is important to make the target audience explicit, particularly when Instructional Designers are preparing objectives to communicate their designs to other instructional design or development team members. However, when presenting objectives to students, the audience may be inferred, or simply stated as, “you.”

For example, when an Instructional Designer generates a performance objective that is to be used by other instructional developers, the objective may read something like:

Given the results of an instructional analysis, graduate instructional technology students will generate a list of performance objectives that contain all four basic components with 100% accuracy.

In comparison, if the same objective is written for students, it may read something like:

Given the results of an instructional analysis, generate a list of performance objectives that contain all four basic components with 100% accuracy.

For the purposes of this course, we will ask you to include the Audience in your objectives.

Which of the following statements would you say defines the audience?

• Given all the available OSHA requirements, list the steps necessary in labeling a container with 80% accuracy.

• The student will be able to list seven Presidents with 100% accuracy.

If you selected:

Given all the available OSHA requirements, list the steps necessary in labeling a container with 80% accuracy.

Think about the audience. This performance objective does have different components but it does not actually state the audience. Remember that in a performance objective the audience must be actually stated.

For example:

• The eighth-grade girls…
• The fifth-grade gym classes…
• The process technicians…

If you selected:

The student will be able to list seven Presidents with 100% accuracy.

Excellent! This is not a complete performance objective but it does state the first component, the audience. The audience can be stated in a general manner as seen above or it can be stated in more specific terms. For example: The second-grade students with an “A” average.

Behavior

The second component of writing an objective is behavior. The behavior is typically an action verb that describes what learners are expected to know and/or be able to do. It should match the verb identified in your instructional analysis. For instance, in my instructional analysis of this course, I identified six skills (boxes) that served as the foundation for preparing performance objectives for the online orientation of this course. The verbs in the selected boxes are the behaviors that should be included in corresponding performance objectives.

One of the difficult parts of writing a performance objective is to select an appropriate verb to describe the to be learned behavior. The verb in the objective should describe an observable action and should be measurable. It is important to remember that the best objectives are explicit and exclude meanings other than your intent (e.g., to know vs. to write). We can not observe a person “knowing” “understanding” or “appreciating” but we can observe a person “writing” “describing” or “evaluating.”

In the course textbook, Dick, Carey, and Carey (2009) provide a detailed argument for why it is important to write measurable objectives. In short, it is believed that since objectives form the basis for student assessment, if it is not measurable, it would not be possible to determine precisely if students achieved the objective. For example, let’s say you are presented with the objective,

EME6613 students will know the four components of a performance objective.

In this example, what does it mean, to know the components of a performance objective? Does it mean that you should be able to write a proper objective with all of the necessary components? Does the ability to list the four major components represent the achievement of the objective? Or should you be able to describe what each of the four components mean? As you can see, fuzzy or unmeasurable objectives make it difficult for students to discern what is actually expected of them.

Table 4.1 lists action verbs (aka. behaviors) that are observable and measurable. They are classified according to six levels of learning posited by Bloom (1956). We recommend that you review the list and determine if you have used appropriate action verbs in your subordinate skills analysis. If not, we recommend that you go back and revise your subordinate skills analysis before attempting to write objectives for your instructional unit. If you have used appropriate verbs, utilize them as the behaviors in your objectives.

Table 4.1. Action verbs associated with domains of learning

Select the statement that best describes a behavior.

• The student will be able to write the alphabet with 100% accuracy.

• The student will acquire an appreciation for Mozart.

If you selected:

The student will be able to write the alphabet with 100% accuracy.

Good Job! You remembered that the most important part of the behavior was an observable verb. You can tell when someone is writing an alphabet. We can observe them actually doing it. This behavior is showing us a specific performance.

If you selected:

The student will be able to acquire an appreciation for Mozart.

Oops! Just because learning the alphabet might seem more elementary than appreciating Mozart does not make Mozart the correct answer. It would be great if we could give someone an appreciation of Mozart but how can we measure this? How can we observe it? The verb appreciate does not help us. It is not explicit. How can we see someone appreciating Mozart? Words like appreciating, liking, and understanding can only be implied, they can not be observed. Review the list of verbs in relation to the given taxonomy. Remember to first look at the level of learning and then pick a verb that will explicitly describe what you want the learner will do. Words like stating, listing, and writing can explicitly describe a behavior. Many verbs involve fine motor skills but behavior can also be observed by verbs like running, jumping, and skating.

Condition

The third part of the performance objective is the Condition. The Condition may serve several functions. It may specify: (a) the cue or stimulus that learners will use to search for information stored in memory; (b) the characteristics of resource materials or tools required to perform the task; and/or (c) the scope and complexity of the task Details and examples of each function are provided by Dick, Carey, and Carey (2009).

In short, it describes the conditions under which learners are expected to perform the specified behavior.

Examples of conditions are:

• Given a list of twenty factors…
• Given a thermometer…
• When provided with a calendar…
• Granted two thousand dollars…

Select the statement that best describes a condition.

• When given a group of spelling words the students will be able to put them in alphabetical order.

• Fifth-grade students will be able to state the six state capitals with 100% accuracy.

If you selected:

When given a group of spelling words the students will be able to put them in alphabetical order.

Terrific! This tells the learner that a group of spelling words is going to be given to them. They are not expected to decide what the spelling words are. You remembered that the condition states what the learner will be allowed to use.

If you selected:

Fifth-grade students will be able to state the six capitals with 100% accuracy.

“Be able to state” is a behavior, not a condition. It is important to remember that when we are dealing with a condition. The condition states the available resources. The correct answer would have been: “When given a group of spelling words…” The resources here are the spelling words. The student is told that they will be given the resources and will not have to decide what the spelling words are. A condition can state the situation and setting for the performance to take place. Remember that the condition can tell the cue or stimulus used in a performance objective. The condition states what the learner will be allowed to use.

Some more examples of conditions are:

• Given a definition
• Given six eggs and a glass of milk
• Given the music for Symphony 40
• When provided with scissors

Degree

The fourth part of the performance objective is the Degree (aka. Criteria). The Degree tells how the performance will be measured and what is the acceptable completion for the required performance. The degree often relays a numeric measure and may include: quantity, quality, efficiency, or durability.

Examples of Degree include:

• How much? 80%
• How often? 2 times
• How accurate? Within 2 lbs.
• To what extent? With little to no assistance

Which of the following statements describes the degree? Select the correct answer.

• Given a list of spelling words and their notebooks, first graders will write their spelling words in alphabetical order with 90% accuracy.

• Given a label and a marker the process technician will label the hazardous materials kept in an OSHA-required container.

If you selected:

Given a list of spelling words and their notebooks, first graders will write their spelling words in alphabetical order with 90% accuracy.

The 90% must have given it away!!!!! It is numeric, we can measure it. This will tell you if the first graders are able to put their words in alphabetical order with a certain amount of accuracy! When we are dealing with degree we are talking about the quality of performance. In this case, by saying 90% you knew that the student had to get 90% of their words in alphabetical order to be acceptable.

If you selected:

Given a label and a marker the process technician will label the hazardous materials kept in an OSHA-required container.

It does sound like it is more important than putting words in alphabetical order, but we still do not have a degree or a number of how many containers are labeled correctly. When we are dealing with degree, we are stating what is the acceptable amount of correct or incorrect answers something has.

Remember the examples:

• How much? 70%
• How often? 3 times
• How accurate? Within 10 lbs
• To what extent? With little to no assistance

Summary: A, B, C, D’s of Performance Objectives

Remember that there are four major components of a performance objective. These different components are necessary for writing performance objectives. They are what we call the A, B, C, and D’s of performance objectives. The A, B, C, and D’s include the audience, the behavior, the condition, and the degree. Their definitions are:

Audience. The audience describes the target population for the performance objective.

Behavior. The behavior describes the skill, knowledge or attitude that is to be learned. It is typically an action verb, and must be measurable and observable.

Condition. The condition states what the learner will be allowed to use. It will also describe under what circumstances the expected performance will occur.

Degree. The degree (or criteria) describes how the performance will be measured, what is acceptable behavior and/or to what extent the learner is expected to exhibit the behavior.

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Identifying, Clustering & Sequencing Objectives

Now that you can recognize the four basic components of an objective and can write good objective statements, the question arises, “where do objectives come from?” In Unit 2, we talked about the subject matter expert (SME) approach to instructional design. I noted that SMEs typically start the systematic design process by defining a list of objectives. I also noted that this approach may result in the derivation of some objectives that may not be related to a particular goal. For instance, a SME may think certain skills and knowledge are important because of their particular area of expertise rather than because the skill or knowledge are directly related to the goal. SMEs may also fail to identify key objectives that are necessary to accomplish the goal because they have not analyzed the relationship between listed objectives.

In Unit 1 – Goal Analysis, you created a goal analysis chart that identified the major steps necessary to achieve your instructional goal. You then selected one of the major steps as the basis for completing a Subordinate Skills Analysis. If you do not have a copy of your Goal and Subordinate Skills Analysis handy, please be sure to get a copy now.

The major step you selected from your goal analysis chart may be transformed into the terminal objective for your instructional unit. Terminal objectives specify what learners should know and be able to do after completing a unit of instruction. The skills identified in your subordinate skills analysis may then become enabling objectives for your instructional unit. Enabling objectives to specify what learners must know and be able to do to accomplish the terminal objectives. Therefore, achievement of all enabling objectives should result in the achievement of all terminal objectives, and the achievement of all terminal objectives should result in the achievement of your instructional goal.

Figure 4.1 is a copy of the subordinate skills analysis diagram used to identify key skills, knowledge, and attitudes for Unit 1 of this course. If we were to follow Dick, Carey, and Carey’s (2009) recommendation, we would create objectives for each of the boxes represented on the map. However, we feel that this would result in too many discrete objectives that would overwhelm students if presented for one instructional unit.

Rather than creating an instructional objective for each box represented in your instructional map, we recommend selecting 3-6 boxes at the appropriate level of analysis that subsume all lower-order skills and knowledge, as shaded in Figure 4.2. Also, be sure to note that we combined the skills noted in boxes 1.2.1-1.2.4 into one stated enabling objective for the online Course Orientation. The skill, knowledge, or attitude in the 3-6 boxes you selected then form the basis for creating the instructional objectives for your instructional unit.

This basic method for identifying objectives may be applied to your goal analysis and subordinate skills analysis diagrams to define the overall scope and sequence for your course or training program. Let’s assume that you completed a subordinate skills analysis for each of the major steps specified in your goal analysis. Examine your subordinate skills analysis diagrams. Identify logical clusters of skills (boxes). Each cluster forms a lesson or instructional unit. After identifying all logical clusters, determine how you would sequence them. Course scope and sequence identify the number of units or lessons to be included in your instruction along with related terminal and enabling objectives (Table 4.2).

Table 4.2. Outline for course scope and sequence chart

Dick, Carey, and Carey (2015) also describe and illustrate techniques for sequencing and clustering objectives. Of course, you must use your professional judgment as you analyze your goal and subordinate skills analyses and cluster and sequence objectives. Major steps do not always serve as the best foundation for defining units. For example, several steps may be combined to form an instructional unit that contains multiple terminal objectives. You must also use your professional judgment to identify an appropriate number of enabling objectives based on your subordinate skills analysis.

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Summary

In Unit 5, we tried to emphasize several key concepts associated with generating performance objectives. We reviewed key components of performance objectives, adding a fourth (audience) to the three basic components (i.e., behavior, condition, and degree) described by Dick, Carey, and Carey (2015). We also tried to clarify the process of identifying objectives and illustrated how this process may be used to define the scope and sequence of an entire course or training program that may be associated with an instructional goal. Before you go to complete Assignment 5, be sure to note Dick, Carey, and Carey’s (2015) discussion on evaluating objectives and the function of objectives, along with the examples provided in Chapter 6 of the course textbook. After generating performance objectives, you will continue with the next step in the systematic design process – determining learner assessment methods and items.

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Last Updated 08/19/22