Educational Objectives

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Educational Objectives

• Quantifying Learning

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Educational Objectives

• Motivation
• Components
• Authorities
• Taxonomies in detail
• How to
• Examples

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Why Write Educational Objectives for Your Course?

• To tell students what they will be expected to
  learn
• To ensure that students learn on a number of
  cognitive levels
• To quantify assessment by creating measurable
  objectives

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Components of an Educational Objective

• The task that the student is to do (i.e., the
  behavior)
• The conditions under which the behavior is to be
  displayed
• The level of achievement expected
• Teaching Engineering, Wankat and Oreovicz

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Who has published information about writing
objectives?

• Bloom
• Cognitive Domain 6 levels
• Krathwohl
• Affective Domain 4 levels
• Kibler
• Psychomotor Domain 4 levels
• Plants, Sears and Dean
• Problem Solving Taxonomy 5 levels

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Blooms TaxonomyCognitive Domain

• Knowledge
• Comprehension
• Application
• Analysis
• Synthesis
• Evaluation

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Blooms Taxonomy Cognitive Domain

• Knowledge Repeating from memory
• Comprehension Demonstrating understanding of
  terms and concepts
• Applications Applying learned information to
  solve a problem

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Blooms TaxonomyCognitive Domain

• Analysis Breaking things down into their
  elements, formulating theoretical explanations or
  mathematical or logical models for observed
  phenomena
• Synthesis Creating something, combining
  elements in novel ways
• Evaluation Choosing from alternatives and
  justifying the choice using specified criteria

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Blooms TaxonomyCognitive Domain

• Descriptive Verbs
• Knowledge list, identify, summarize
• Comprehension explain, describe, interpret
• Application apply, calculate, solve
• Analysis derive, explain, classify
• Synthesis formulate, design, create
• Evaluation determine, optimize, select

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Krathwohls TaxonomyAffective Domain

• Receiving and attending willing to receive or
  reject new information
• Responding willing to respond to information
• Valuing decides that information has inherent
  worth
• Organization organizes values into a system
• Characterization by a value acts in a way that
  allows others to see his or her underlying values

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Kiblers Taxonomy Psychomotor Domain

• Gross Body Movements
• Finely Coordinated Body Movements
• Non-verbal Communication Behaviors
• Speech Behaviors

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Plants, Sears, DeanProblem Solving Taxonomy

• Routines no decisions required
• Diagnosis selection of correct routine
• Strategy choice of routine and order to apply
• Interpretation solve real world problem
  requiring assumptions and interpretations
• Generation development of routines that are new
  to the user

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Educational Objectives

• Overall objectives
• Outside review of objectives
• Detailed objectives for individual sections
• Weekly objectives
• Daily objectives

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Which Taxonomies Could You Use?

• Depends on your course
• Blooms taxonomy is better known with more
  examples
• Blooms taxonomy may not allow definition of
  physical characteristics or behaviors
• Educational objectives for an engineering course
  may be a combination of cognitive and psychomotor

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Examples Blooms Taxonomy

• Knowledge The student can identify the six
  orthographic views and oblique and isometric
  pictorial views
• Comprehension - Explain in your own words the
  concept of vapor pressure
• Application Given two orthographic views of a
  3D object, the student can determine the third
  through sixth orthographic views and draw the
  pictorial view

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Examples Blooms Taxonomy

• Analysis The student can dimension the
  orthographic views of an object so that a
  machinist could produce the object.
• Synthesis Formulate a model-based alternative
  to the PID controller design
• Evaluation Determine which of the given heat
  exchanger configurations is better and explain
  your reasoning

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Examples Kiblers Taxonomy

• Given a multifaceted block, the student can
  sketch to scale three orthographic views and a
  pictorial view of the block
• Having completed a team design-build project the
  student can prepare and deliver a clear, oral
  project presentation

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References

• Wankat, P. C. and F. S. Oreovicz, Teaching
  Engineering, New York, McGraw-Hill, 1993.
• Felder, R. M. and R. Brent, Objectively
  Speaking, Chemical Engineering Education, 31(3),
  178-179 (1997).
• Bloom, B. S., Taxonomy of educational objectives.
  1. Cognitive domain. New York, Longman, 1984.