Page 53 - Making Instruction Work

chap 5 3/11/97 4:49 PM Page 41

5

Goal Analysis

Situation: While deriving the important outcomes of
your instruction, you’ve run into some abstract expec-
tations, such as “They should be motivated,” or “They
should be more safety-conscious,” or “They don’t have
the right attitude.” You want to know how to handle
those abstractions and learn what, if anything, you’ll
need to teach to better accomplish those goals.

Suppose that you’ve just completed a job analysis and shown
your work to someone whose opinion you value who says,
“This is great. This is just what these people are supposed to
do,”and then adds,“But we also want them to be conscientious
about their work and more thorough in their reporting. And
it’s important that they be professional.” Since you can’t watch
people conscientiousing, or thoroughing, or professionaling,
what to do?
The fact is that not everything we want people to be able to
do can be described in terms of tasks—not everything can be
directly observed. Sometimes, rather than being expected to
carry out tasks, people are expected to exhibit certain charac-
teristics, states, or traits.