The instructional objectives of a lesson plan describe the author's educational intent for the students - that is, the desired learning outcomes. Think about our "4 Key Questions;" on e of them asked what is 'it' we want students to be able to do after the instruction? Objectives define the 'it.'

Objectives are not brief descriptions of lesson content or descriptions of activities in which students will participate. Well-written objectives describe what the student will be able to do after learning the lesson. Before writing an economics lesson, the author must identify the learning outcomes so that the lesson's activities are directed toward the desired result. If the objectives are not clear, the author may very well end up with other outcomes that are unexpected or undesirable. There are some basics to keep in mind when crafting instructional objectives. The actual format of instructional objectives varies in educational publications; however, good objectives are student-oriented, observable, clear and unambiguous, and descriptive of a learning outcome. Student-oriented. An instructional objective describes what change will take place in the learner - the student. Many instructional objectives begin with the phrase, "the student will be able to." The focus is on the student, not the teacher. Some writers have included instructional objectives that say such things as "teach how to draw a demand curve" or "show a video on supply and demand." These objectives focus on teacher activities, not student learning. Remember that instructional objectives describe what the student will be able to do after completing the lesson.

Complete instructional objectives should be:

Observable. Lesson writers differ in the level of specificity they seek in describing student learning outcomes. Sweeping generalizations and highly itemized instructions for each student should probably be avoided. It is important, however, to write objectives in a way that specifies how students might show that they have learned the idea or skill in question.

Consider the following objectives:

1. Students will be able to understand the difference between urban and rural communities.

2. Students will be able to list in their journals two differences between urban and rural communities.

The first objective is very general and it does not say how students might show, in any observable way, their understanding. What does it mean to "understand" the concept of urban community? This type of objective does not provide adequate information to the teacher about what the student will be able to do after completing the lesson, nor does it guide the teacher's evaluation of whether students have achieved the objective. The second objective, however, more clearly identifies the expected student behavior.
 

Clear and unambiguous. The key to a clear and unambiguous instructional objective is a clearly stated verb describing an explicit action that the student should be able to take. I have placed excerpts from Benjamin Bloom's Taxonomy of Instructional Objectives on reserve in the IRC; this is a great resource for examples of verbs that clearly describe what students will be able to do at various levels of learning. A clear objective will include an appropriate verb denoting observable action, as well as an accompanying object of that verb. For example, students will define productivity as output divided by input. This objective explicitly identifies what the student will be able to do. The student will be able to define productivity in a specific way. The objective is unambiguous in that there is only one possible meaning for the statement. Furthermore, most observers could judge whether students had achieved-that objective.

Description of a learning outcome. Lesson objectives differ from lesson activities or procedures. Lesson objectives focus on what the students will achieve by completing the lesson. An objective stating that students will practice graphing demand curves does not specify a learning outcome. It specifies a learning activity that is designed to help students reach some outcome.
 

To this end, I would like us to employ four criteria for developing complete objectives. Use these when constructing your objectives for assignments in this course. When I am evaluating your lesson plans, I will ask myself whether all four criteria for complete objectives have been met. You should do the same.
 

1. The specific performance required to demonstrate successful accomplishement of the instructional objective
• (e.g., to write, to name, to compare and constrast, to debate, to decide, etc.)

2. The learning outcome or product by which successful accomplishment of the objective can be determined

• (e.g., a statement, an essay, a poster, a journal entry, etc.)

3. The conditions under which the behavior is to be performed

• (e.g., during a cooperative activity, after reading the story_______ )

4. The criterion or standard used to determine successful performance or achievement of the instructional objective

• (e.g., correct to the nearest mile, four out of five correct, list three examples, state two differences, etc.)

• See some examples of complete instructional objectives for social studies
• Comprehension Check:
        Use the "quiz" here to assess your knowledge of objectives.