The How and Why of Performance Objectives:
Preparing Learning Objectives

Context:
This selection, one of two from a book on designing instructional systems, focuses on preparing learning objectives.

Source:
Romiszowski, A. 1981. "The How and Why of Performance Objectives." From Designing Instructional Systems. London: Kogan Page, pp. 43–46.

Copyright:
Non-exclusive World English language rights granted by Kogan Page. ISBN 0550382238 (UK) 0893970611 (UK). Telephone: 0172-278 0433; Fax 0171-937 6348; Web Site: www.kogan-page.co.uk

3.1 Aims and objectives in education and training

Whatever you feel about the strength of objections to objectives let's be clear about one thing: the denial of behavioural objectives does not mean that none is being achieved. The teacher who refuses to identify his objectives is nevertheless acting as an agent of change on the behaviour of his students (Derek Rowntree, 1974).

We have already referred to objectives on several occasions. Sometimes we have used other terms: aims, goals, purposes. It is time to tighten up our usage. It has become customary (at least among educational technologists) to use the term 'educational objective' in a precise way, whereas the other near synonyms are used less precisely.

Aim: a general statement

Thus, an educational aim, goal or purpose can be a fairly general statement of intent, not necessarily stated in a systematic way. An educational objective (or instructional objective) on the other hand, is a precise statement of intent, stated in a systematic way.

An aim may be stated in input terms (eg to teach history; to spread the gospel), or process terms (eg to solve maths problems). An objective is always stated in output (or product) terms. It is also stated more precisely. For example, the aim 'to solve maths problems' would transform into an objective (or rather a set of objectives) thus:

Objective: an output statement

1. Given maths problems of the following types (specify).
2. The students should solve them.
3. To the following standards of speed and accuracy (specify).

Instructional objectives describe the outputs of the instructional process

Such statement of post-instructions or terminal behaviour became commonly used in the 1960s. The particular systematic format illustrated here was popularized by Robert Mager's booklet Preparing Instructional Objectives (Mager, 1962).

The essential ingredients in a behavioural objective, according to Mager are:

1. A statement of what the student should be able to do at the end of the learning session (the terminal behaviour).
2. The conditions under which he should be able to exhibit the terminal behaviour.
3. The standard to which he should be able to perform (the criteria).

Mager-type statements of objectives

For example: the student (1) should be able to find the square root of any number (2) using tables of square roots or logarithm tables and (3) getting the answer correct to three significant figures nine times out of 10.

Transforming aims into objectives

Transforming the other aims mentioned above is more difficult, as apart from making the statement more precise, we have to transform the input or process statements into an output statement, and there are many ways in which this could be done. However, it can be transformed into an output statement once we form some idea of 'where we are going', in this case, once we are clear why we wish to teach history. If, for example, we accept that history should be taught so that it is relevant to today's life and times and should be useful to the learner in his everyday life, then one possible form of output statement would be:

1. Given a current political, social or economic event and prior teaching or relevant historical events.
2. The student should identify the similarities and differences between the current events and relevant past events, construct a hypothesis to explain or predict the results of the current event and justify his hypothesis by reference to historical evidence.
3. He should be able to do this to the satisfaction of the teacher, which would be assessed by the following criteria: at least 60 per cent in agreement with the teacher's own viewpoint or with reality. In the other 40 per cent of cases the student can explain to the teacher's satisfaction the source of the divergence of opinion.

In becoming precise, the statement has become somewhat unwieldy, but this is unavoidable in some cases ' Other examples of aims transformed into objectives are included in Map 3.1.

3.2 Extending the statement of objectives: the test instrument

Mager's instructional objectives are stated in terms of student behaviour or performance because this is the only type of output from the student which can be observed in order to infer whether learning has taken place. If the student could not exhibit the behaviour before instruction took place and now he can, the instructional process had some effect.

But was it as effective as we had hoped? We can only judge this if we have a standard or criterion which we can use to compare the actual behaviour with the desired behaviour (the objective).

Finally, if the actual terminal behaviour does not match the objective, can we be sure that it is due to the student not having learned? There are at least two other alternative possibilities:

1. He chooses not to exhibit the behaviour (although he could if he wanted to).This is a problem of motivation/cooperation/attitude which we will come back to later, but for the moment ignore.
2. He knows how to but he does not have the necessary tools/data/time. He has not been supplied with the necessary external (environmental) condition for satisfactory performance.

The three components used by Mager

Hence, the need for Mager's three components (see Figure 3.1) of a precise instructional objective:

A fourth component: the test instrument

It is by now quite clear that one use of precise objectives is to provide the basis for measuring the results of instruction (the other main use is to make sure that the methods and content of instruction are relevant). So some writers (eg Miller 1962, Armstrong et al 1970) have suggested that it would be useful and yet more precise to include a fourth type of component in the statement of objectives: a description of the way in which the behaviour will be measured. Some behaviours can be observed directly (eg kicking a football) but others only when special conditions or instruments are arranged (eg testing an attitude may require a questionnaire, or a confrontation to be prepared).

Figure 3.1 Components of an instructional objective

Student

1. Input (given conditions)

2. Output (behaviour)

3. Criterion (standard)

To some extent, the 'conditions' item may already imply what means of measurement is to be used, but this is not always so. In any case, it is quite useful to give some systematic thought to the means of measurement to be used, as sometimes in practice certain procedures are impractical, too costly, unreliable, etc. For example, in the case of the history objective mentioned above, it is not yet clear whether our evaluation is to be a one-off examination, which presents certain events to the student and asks him to explain them through his knowledge of history (the student knows that the examination is coming and prepares himself accordingly), or whether (as the original aims seems to imply) history is to be a useful tool throughout life and therefore we should evaluate the course by a long-term observation of how the student reacts to or explains current events out of school. This latter test instrument may be theoretically more valid, but is probably quite impracticable. A similar problem occurs in practical skills-do we test on simulated exercises or follow up job performance-and even more in the case of attitudes: will the sales girl who 'knows' that the 'customer is always right' continue to act accordingly even in extreme real-life circumstances.

So let us adopt a four-point format (see Figure 3.2) for instructional objectives:

• Necessary external conditions
• Desired performance (or behaviour)
• Standard (or criterion)
• Instrument (or method) of evaluation.

Figure 3.2 A four-point format for instructional objectives

Student

1. Conditions
2. Behaviour
3. Criterion (standard)
4. Test instrument

It is quite useful to lay out the statement of objectives in a four-column format, as shown overleaf:

Doing this:

• Saves a lot of writing. You avoid rewriting the linking words and phrases of the statements
• Helps to ensure that all four components have been defined
• Enables several checks to be made as will be explained below.