Page 90 - Making Instruction Work

chap 7 3/14/97 1:21 PM Page 76

76 making instruction work

Warning: Jargon Ahead
Over the past 25 years or so the notion of objectives has
picked up jargon like a ship collects barnacles. They have been
called behavioral objectives, competencies, outcomes, and per-
formance objectives. Worse, the same objective has been
labeled at one and the same time a classroom objective, a
course objective, a school objective, a district objective, and a
county objective.
But if you describe a measurable outcome important to
accomplish, that is an objective.
Keep this in mind: they’re not called behavioral objectives,
because many describe the product or result of the behavior
rather than the behavior itself. They’re not called competen-
cies, because competency means skill rather than intended
outcome. The word objective doesn’t need to be modified by
the word class, course, school, or county, unless different out-
comes are intended for those different entities.
If you describe an intended outcome specifically enough to
tell whether it has been accomplished, call it an objective.
Period.

How to Do It

1. Collect all the analysis documents drafted to this point.

2. While reviewing the task flowcharts, write an objective
to describe the performance of each task.

3. Now look at the list of skills that anyone would have to
have before practicing the entire task. Write an objective
to describe each of those skills. In other words, write a
statement to describe the limits of those skills, one that
tells how much of each skill is needed by someone
intending to perform the task. (Note: If you are an