Educational Learning Objectives

An educational learning objective states what students will be able to do upon completion of a lesson.

Educational learning objectives are not the same thing as learning goals. Goals are broad categorizations of things students will learn, whereas learning objectives state specific, measurable tasks that students will be able to perform upon completion of a lesson. Write the objectives before designing the lesson plan and then tailor each step of the lesson toward fulfilling an objective.

Components

Well-written educational objectives 1) describe a behavior, 2) are student centered, 3) list specific conditions regarding the task and 4) state measurable standards that demonstrate whether a student completes the behavior acceptably. Keep objectives short and to the point with a single focus per objective. Rather than verbs like understand and know, verbs should be actionable, such as recite or draw.

Domains

People learn in different ways. Benjamin Bloom is well-known for describing these three domains as cognitive, affective and psychomotor. In other words, knowledge, attitude and skills. When you write an educational learning objective, target one of these domains specifically by choosing relevant actionable verbs. For example, evaluate the cognitive domain, knowledge, with verbs such as recall, apply, estimate, write and test. Check student progress in the affective, or attitude, domain with verbs like support, participate, praise or join. Psychomotor, or skills, domain verbs include repair, measure, operate and move.

Measurable Verbs

The key to a learning objective is the measurable quality indicated by the verb. You can't measure whether a student understands parts of speech, but you can measure whether he can list the eight parts of speech. Starting with an actionable verb helps direct your objective. Avoid verbs like learn, familiarize, study and comprehend. Instead, use common measurable verbs such as explain, compare, evaluate, identify, design, name, define, discuss, assess, analyze, formulate, differentiate, label, translate, solve, operate, use and compute.

Examples

Consider this educational objective: After the unit, the student will measure one side of a square and correctly calculate the square's perimeter in inches. This example contains all required parts: it is student-centered, contains a condition (after the unit), adds an actionable verb (will measure) and states the outcome that demonstrates successful completion (calculates perimeter correctly). Further examples that fall under each learning domain are as follows. Cognitive: After the unit, the student will be able to identify and describe a square, circle and triangle. Affective: After completing the activities, the student will present his point of view in a 3-minute class presentation. Psychomotor: After completing all six steps of the lesson, the student will repair a flat tire by himself.

References

• American Public Health Association: Guidelines for Writing Learning Objectives
• Park University: Writing Quality Learning Objectives
• MIT Teachng and Learning Laboratory: Learning Objectives

Resources

• Air University: Learning Objective Verbs at Each Bloom Taxonomy Level
• Adprima: Definitions of Behavioral Verbs for Learning Objectives