Goals and objectives are similar in that they serve to direct teaching and learning. They describe the intended purposes and expected results of teaching activities and establish the foundation for assessment.
Goals are statements about general aims or purposes of education that are broad, long range intended outcomes. Goals are used primarily in policy making and general program planning.
Objectives are brief, clear statements that describe the desired learning outcomes of instruction. Attention is focused on the specific types of performances that students are expected to demonstrate at the end of instruction.
Table of Contents:
Goals
Objectives
Determining Goals for Student Outcomes Assessment Programs
Every assessment effort usually begins with a set of outcome goals. Goals are individually determined by the unique features of each program or course. Below are lists of suggestions from various resources on how to go about planning and setting goals for outcomes assessment programs.
--from the Handbook on Accreditation 194-1996, North Central Association of Colleges and Schools, p. 156
1. To what extent has the institution demonstrated that the plan is linked to mission, goals, and objectives of the institution for student learning and academic achievement, including learning in the general education of the major?
2. What is the institution's evidence that faculty have participated in the development of the institutions plan and the plan is institution-wide in development and scope?
3. How does the plan demonstrate the likelihood that the assessment program will lead to instructional improvement when it is implemented?
4. Is the time line for the assessment appropriate? Realistic?
5. What is the evidence that the plan provides for the appropriate administration of the assessment program?
3. Ten Characteristics of An Affective Program to Assess Student Academic Achievement from the NCA Commission:
- Successful assessment flows from the institution's mission and educational purposes.
- Successful assessment emerges from a conceptual framework.
- Successful assessment is marked by faculty ownership and responsibility.
- Successful assessment has institution wide support.
- Successful assessment relies on multiple measures.
- Successful assessment provides feedback to students and the institution.
- Successful assessment is cost-effective.
- Successful assessment does not restrict or inhibit the goals of access, equity, and diversity established by the institution.
- Successful assessment leads to improvement.
- Successful assessment includes a process for evaluating the assessment program.
Outcomes assessment plans should:
- be coordinated by a single person advised by a committee;
- have well-identified shared goals and objectives;
- be tied to curricular review and program improvement;
- be integrated with teaching effort (all parties involved know what the others are doing and how the pieces of the curriculum fit together for the program);
- include a recognized feedback loop (knowledge gained from assessment is utilized to improve teaching, the curriculum, the goals and objectives, learning--all pieces of the assessment program);
- provide incentives to get everyone to "buy into" the program and help in the form of funds or personnel from outside the unit to develop the assessment program;
- involve everyone-students, faculty, alumni, employers of the graduates, and accrediting agencies--and strive for continuous improvement.
Components of Objectives: Essential and optional components of objectives are described below.
Essential Components
- Goal: identify the focus of learning--content, concept(s), skill, or attitude.
- Behaviors: specify actions or behaviors that follow instruction and could serve as evidence that the objective has been achieved; use active verbs that describe observable behavior.
Optional Components:
- Target groups: specify subgroups when objective applies differentially.
- Conditions: give information about situations in which the student will be required to demonstrate the behavior--how, when, or where.
- Performance Criteria: state any minimum level of performance.
- Performance Stability: give information about how often the student behavior must be observed to be a true indication that the behavior is a stable part of the student's achievement repertoire.
Mastery versus Developmental Objectives
Objectives written for mastery of sample knowledge and skills and those written for advanced or higher levels of learning are very distinctive. What is unique to each type is explained below.
Mastery objectives are typically concerned with the minimum performance essentials: those learning tasks that must be mastered by all students for success at the next level of instruction. These objectives tend to be limited enough in scope that all, or nearly all, intended outcomes can be specified.
Examples:
- Solve quadratic equations.
- Identify symbols used on weather maps.
- Identify parts of the microscope.
Developmental objectives are concerned with more complex learning outcomes--those learning tasks toward which students can be expected to show varying degrees of progress. Developmental objectives are often written in a two step process in which a general objective is stated along with a sample of specific learning outcomes.
Examples:
- Understand basic scientific principles.
- State the principle in his/her own words.
- Give an example of the principle.
- Distinguish between correct and incorrect applications of the principle.
- Identify predictions that are in harmony with the principle.
- Action verbs that specify definite, observable behaviors.
- Uses simple language.
- Describes student rather than teacher behaviors.
- Describes a learning outcome rather than a learning process.
- Focuses on the end of instructional behavior rather than subject matter coverage.
- Indicates a single outcome per objective.
- Can be assessed by one or more indicators (methods).
- Is clearly linked to a goal.
- Is realistic and attainable.
- Is not simple when complexity is needed.
- Is clear to people outside the discipline.
- Is validated by departmental colleagues.
Types of Learning Outcomes to Consider:
Gronlund (1981) provided the following list of types of outcomes. The list delineates many of the major areas in which instructional objectives might be produced. The specific categories were intended to be suggestive, not exclusive.
Knowledge
- terminology
- specific facts
- concepts and principles
- methods and procedures
Understanding
- concepts and principles
- methods and procedures
- written material, graphs, maps, and numerical data
- problem situations
Application
- factual information
- concepts and principles
- methods and procedures
- problem-solving skills
Thinking skills
- critical thinking
- scientific thinking
General skills
- laboratory skills
- performance skills
- communications skills
- computational skills
- social skills
Attitudes
- social attitudes
- scientific attitudes
Interests
- personal interests
- educational interests
- vocational interests
Appreciation
- literature, art, and music
- social and scientific achievements
Adjustments
- social adjustments
- emotional adjustments
Bloom's classification of cognitive skills is commonly used in instructional planning. The six categories are arranged by level of complexity. Use of this or other classification systems is recommended to safeguard against a tendency to focus on content coverage and to ignore what the students should learn to do with content.
Knowledge: Recalling or remembering something without necessarily understanding, using, or changing it
list, match, memorize, point to, recall, select, state
Comprehension: Understanding something that has been communicated without necessarily relating it to anything else.
alter, account for, annotate, calculate, change, convert, group, explain, generalize, give examples, infer, interpret, paraphrase, predict, review, translate
Application: Using a general concept to solve problems in a particular situation; using learned material in new and concrete situations.
apply, adopt, collect, construct, demonstrate, discover, illustrate, interview, make use of, manipulate, rate, show, solve, use
Analysis: Breaking something down into its parts; may focus on identification of parts or analysis of relationships between parts, or recognition of organizational principles
analyze, compare, contrast, diagram, differentiate, dissect, distinguish, identify, illustrate, infer, outline, point out, select, separate, sort, subdivide
Synthesis: Creating something new by putting parts of different ideas together to make a whole.
blend, build, change, combine, compile, compose, conceive, create, design, formulate, generate, hypothesize, plan, predict, produce, reorder, revise, tell, write
Evaluation: Judging the value of material or methods as they might be applied in a particular situation; judging with the use of definite criteria
accept, appraise, assess, arbitrate, award, choose, conclude, criticize, defend, evaluate, grade, judge, prioritize, recommend, referee, reject, support.
Q) What are the differences between goals and objectives?
A) Because the two terms are often used interchangeably, confusion sometimes arises. Although both goals and objectives use the language of outcomes, the characteristic that distinguishes goals from objectives is the level of specificity. Goals express intended outcomes in general terms and objectives express them in specific terms. Goals are written in broad, global, and sometimes vague, language. Objectives are statements that describe the intended results of instruction in terms of specific student behaviors.
Q) What are the differences between objectives and outcomes?
A) Objectives are intended results or consequences of instruction, curricula, programs, or activities. Outcomes are achieved results or consequences of what was learned-- evidence that some learning took place. Objectives specify what is expected and describe what should be assessed; outcomes are behaviors and products generated by students after instruction and are the objects of assessment.
Q) What is the relationship between objectives and assessment?
A) "One must know what is to be assessed before one knows how to assess it." A statement of objectives should, in the best of all possible worlds, precede assessment. Stated in a stronger way, objectives should drive the assessment methods and instruments and not the other way around.
Q) Before assessment, what is needed?
A) Objectives are needed before appropriate assessment tools and procedures can be selected or designed. At a minimum, objectives should describe student behaviors and products that faculty would accept as evidence that the learning outcomes were achieved. Goal statements are helpful, but are sometimes too general, broad, or vague for developing specific assessment tools. Information about how objectives are linked to goals is useful when reporting and using assessment results.
Q) Are there different types of objectives?
A) Yes, objectives may be classified as cognitive, affective, or skill/performance dimensions. Cognitive objectives are descriptions of thinking skills. Affective objectives refer to attitudinal, personal, and social dimensions of outcomes. Skill objectives such as writing, computer use, speaking, and physical skills are distinctive from cognitive (knowledge) objectives. Skills are the means by which knowledge is acquired. Subject matter objectives are a subset of cognitive objectives that are specific to knowledge of subject matter.
Q) Are objectives readily available in the department?
Often they are. However, they may need to be put into written form, revised, or updated. Many instructional decisions are made informally and then communicated orally. Because teaching has dynamic qualities, written objectives may not be available or may need to bc updated. Further, as faculty are generally actively engaged in revising their materials and practices, there may be a tendency to write objectives that describe instructional activities rather than student outcomes.