instructional objectives

“What makes a good lesson”

Using instructional objectives (as developed by Gronlund)


This approach emphasises the observable and pragmatic:
The teacher identifies the general objectives of a learning process and then makes statements of “specific observable actions” that the students should be able to perform to indicate the levels of learning that are taking place. Verbs are carefully selected to communicate these instructional objectives, e.g.if following Bloom’s taxonomy of educational objectives, students could be asked to:
1 List, identify or summarise to demonstrate Knowledge
2 Explain, describe or interpret to demonstrate Comprehension
3 Apply, calculate or solve to indicate Application
4 Explain, classify or derive to demonstrate Analysis
5 Formulate, design or create to demonstrate Synthesis
6 Determine, optimise or select to demonstrate Evaluation
These instructional objectives are used by the teacher to:

1 Prepare and structure lessons
2 Communicate to students precisely what their learning process will be
3 Facilitate formative assessment.

To sum up ,this approach is useful once the teacher has done the hard yards of working out what lesson content would meet the needs of the students (in the deepest sense) . Only then could one apply this technique (for it is a technique rather than a theory )
to ensure that the content be solidly worked with.