NOTETAKING GUIDES: AIMS, GOALS AND OBJECTIVES

What are aims, goals and objectives?

• Aims
  • General statements -- provide shape & direction to the more specific actions designed to achieve some product or behavior.
  • Starting points that suggest some ideal or inspirational vision for the good.
  • Reflect value judgments and value-laden statements.
  • Provide guides for the educational or training process.
  • Generally developed by prestigious, nationwide commissions and task forces

An Aim

• A terminal point toward which we are moving, working, or traveling.
• In general, curriculum aims are statements that describe expected life and/or work outcomes based on some scheme, either consciously or unconsciously, borrowed from philosophy.
• Written with a degree of timelessness.
• They are written usually with non-measurable verbs such as "To understand, To appreciate, to acquire, to become . . ." (Kemp).
• Page 260 of text, "developing self-realization, productive employment, provide tools for continued learning".
• Life outcomes . . .

Writing an Aim

• Parenting - To become effective parents.
• Self-realization - To understand individual development so that they may make choices that lead to a productive life.

Some Educational Aims of the Past

• 1859 Spencer Report
• 1918 The Cardinal Principles
• 1930s The Purpose of Education in American Democracy
• 1944 Education for All American Youth
• 1961 The Central Purpose of American Education
• 1983 A Nation at Risk

Challenges for Tomorrow

• The educational aims must be relevant to the times -- both the present and the future, and furnish direction that is good for society, and not for one particular group.

Goals?

• Derived from various aims and provide curriculum decision-makers with broad statements of what they should accomplish in terms of student learning as a result of a particular educational or training program.
• Statements of purpose with some outcome in mind.
• Tend to be long range and are somewhat removed from what is ordinarily considered immediate classroom assessment.
• A curriculum goal has a purpose or end stated in general terms without criteria or achievement.
  • "Demonstrate how to sell a product or service."
  • "Understand the mission and vision of the company."
  • "Use simple algebraic equations to solve a variety of problems."
• These are not statements of how instructors would teach students.

America 2000

• By the year 2000:
  • ALL CHILDREN in America will start school ready to learn.
  • THE HIGH SCHOOL graduation rate will increase to at least 90 percent.
  • ALL STUDENTS will leave grades 4, 8, and 12 having demonstrated competency over challenging subject matter including English, mathematics, science, history, and geography.
  • US students will be first in the world in mathematics and science achievement.
  • EVERY ADULT American will be literate and will possess the knowledge and skills necessary to compete in a global economy and exercise the rights and responsibilities of citizenship.
  • EVERY SCHOOL in the United States will be free of drugs and violence, and will offer a disciplined environment conducive to learning.

Writing Goals

• Parenting:
  • Study the qualities of good family.
  • Determine the resources necessary for a healthy family.
  • Plan for the birth of children.
  • Establish an effective environment for raising children.
  • Provide for children through their adolescence.

Objectives

• Usually are considered to be specific in nature, written in terms of what students will know, be able to do, or behavior they will exhibit at the end of the instruction.
• Outcomes that students exhibit as a result of the experiences they receive from the curriculum.
  Immediate, specific outcomes of instruction, daily taught and assessed.

Behavioral and Nonbehavioral Objectives

• Behavioral Objectives
  • Behavior (Task)
  • Condition
  • Proficiency (Standard or Criterion)
  • Written in terms of behaviors which are observable.
• Nonbehavioral Objectives
  • Still precise but not necessarily stated in behaviors that are observable.
  • "Know", "Enjoy", "Understand", etc.

Writing Objectives

• Goal - Obtain a meaningful job.
• Objectives:
  • Explore sources of job openings.
  • Write letters of applications.
  • Prepare a resume.
  • Complete job applications.
  • Participate in job interviews.
  • Write letters of acknowledgment.

Formulating Objectives

• Matching -- do they relate to aims and goals?
• Worth -- valuable or essential?
• Wording -- Will persons who use them understand them ? Keep them brief and trimmed of wordiness.
• Appropriateness -- Meet the outcome needs of the learners?
• Logical groupings -- group them so they make sense in units of instruction.
• Periodic Revision -- Students change, society changes, knowledge changes, instructional strategies change.

Cognitive Taxonomy ~ Knowledge

• Knowledge
  • basic facts
• Comprehension
  • translation, interpretation, extrapolation of information
• Application
  • using knowledge
• Analysis
  • break whole of knowledge into parts and distinguishing its separate elements relationships and organizational elements
• Synthesis
  • putting parts together into a new form
• Evaluation
  • judgments based on logical consistency

Affective Domain ~ Values

• Receiving
  • awareness, willingness to receive, selected attention
• Responding
  • willing responses, feelings of satisfaction
• Valuing
  • acceptance, preference, commitment
• Organization
  • conceptualization of values, organization of a value system
• Characterization
  • reflects a generalized set of values, a philosophy of life

Psychomotor Domain ~ Skills

• Reflex Movements
  • muscle movements
• Fundamental Movements
  • walking, running, jumping, pushing, pulling, manipulating
• Perceptual Abilities
  • kinesthetic, visual, auditory, tactile, coordination
• Physical Abilities
  • endurance, strength, flexibility, agility, dexerity
• Skilled Movements
  • games, sports, dance, the art
• Nondiscursive Communication
  • posture, gestures, facial expressions, creative movement

Summary

• The intent of aims, goals and objectives differ, but it must be remembered that congruence must be establish between them if education is to be meaningful.
• Remember to used different levels of objectives and domains of learning to enhance your curriculum.