Week 10, Blog 4 . . . the objectives become clearer

I do have to say, the reading is a little easier. The Morrison, Ross, & Kemp's Designing Effective Instruction is easier for me to read than the first two texts. I am going to discuss the chapter on objectives. This has always been a difficult area for me in teaching. I don't think I had ever really researched the process. I have read objectives in the beginning of chapters or in a syllabus or course of study, but did not really think about how they were determined. I understood the different levels of difficulty and knew there were specific verbs that would relate to each level, but that was about the extent of my knowledge. As Dr. Ge will discover (when reading my design proposal that has my learning objectives written) I really do not have a good grip on that skill, but luckily, the text states that often objectives are revised as the instructional design develops.
Morrison, Ross, & Kemp (2007) describe three functions of objectives: 1. to organize resources and activities, 2. to provide a framework for evaluation, and 3. to provide a guide to the information. Objectives must be written focused on the actions of the learner. They are what the learner will accomplish during the learning experience or activitiy. These objectives may be from any of the three domains (cognitive, psychomotor, and affective) or from all three. The levels of difficulty I mentioned above are a part of the cognitive domain. Depending on the verb chosen, the degree of difficulty can change. These degrees of difficulty include, (beginning at the lowest levell) knowledge, comprehension, application, analysis, synthesis, and evaluation. The degree of difficulty can also change in the psychomotor domain depending on the verb chosen. The degrees of difficulty in the psychomotor domain include (again beginning at the lowest level) imitation, manipulation, precision, and articulation. The affective domain also has levels of difficulty which include: receiving, responding, valuing, organizing and characterizing. According to Morrison et. al, (2007), the afective domain objectives may not be obtained during the time frame of the class or instruction, but may be obtained months or years later as these objectives involves values and attitudes.
Writing objectives is more than strictly stating what the learner will accomplish following the learning experience and is an active portion of the instructional design as it may begin simply as a guide for the instructor but then must be revised to guide the learner.
Whew!!!! So much planning goes into developing objectives and ensuring they reflect the task analysis and instructional purpose.

Reference:
Morrison, G., Ross, S., & Kemp, J (2007) Designing effective instruction. (5th Edition). Chennai, India: John Wiley & Sons, Inc.