One of the most perplexing tasks facing the instructor of an introductory course in
educational measurement is how to teach stu-dents the process of stating instructional
objectives in such a manner that procedures or instruments can be developed or constructed toascertain the achievement of those objectives. Students too oftencome to an introductory measurements course without ever having been adequately taught or shown the need for careful behavioral definition of instructional goals in educational learning situations.Many current textbooks in measurement do contain sections on this topic in units dealing with classroom test construction. This reviewer’s experience has been, however, that students often go awaystill not fully comprehending the necessity of or possessing the necessary skills in preparing objectives so that they are measurable.This book was originally written to facilitate the statement of objectives (i.e., terminal behaviors) in preparing programmed instruction materials. The basic nature of the presentation, however,is one that pervades education in general and measurement in particular. Hence, this book is not only worthwhile for those interestedin programmed instruction but carries useful knowledge for those persons in the field of educational measurement and evaluation.Mager has done an outstanding job by presenting in a simplified and straightforward manner not only the importance of stating objectives explicitly in behavioral terms but also a technique where by this goal can be accomplished.The author says that objectives should be meaningfully stated. By a meaningful objective, he means ... one that succeeds in communicating to the reader the writer’s instructional intent. It is meaningful to the extent it conveys to others a picture (of what asuccessful learner will be like) identical to the picture the writer has in mind; Various examples of well and poorly stated objectives arepresented to illustrate this point.What are the procedures by which meaningful statements ofobjectives can be accomplished? Through a carefully prepared and interesting program, Mager presents to the individual three fundamental considerations in preparing objectives. These are (1) identifying the terminal behavior by name, (2) defining the desired be-havior by describing the conditions under which the behavior willbe expected to occur, and (3) specifying the criteria of acceptable performance by describing how well the learner must be able to perform in order for the performance to be considered acceptable.Examples of how each of these considerations enters into the stating of objectives are presented in the text through use of a modified system of intrinsic programming. The reader is not only presented initially with choices regarding properly stated objectives, but alsogiven opportunity later to put his learning into practice by being asked to make a choice between several test items written and said to measure particularly stated objectives.As an ultimate criterion of whether an objective clearly defines or states the desired outcome, Mager says this will be true only when one can answer yes to the question,Can another competent person select successful learners in terms of the objectives so that you, the objective writer, can agree with the selections? To make sure that he has accomplished his objectives, Mager follows his own prescription. A self-test is presented at the end of the book along with a criterion of acceptable performance.Admittedly in such a small book, Mager cannot go into great detail in tackling the complex problem of defining objectives nor does he deal with the more subtle and complex objectives such asappreciations, attitudes, and understandings. He does limit his discussion mainly to content objectives. While this restriction may be aweakness of the book, the orientation provided in terms of the fundamental approach to objective definition and the presentation of a procedure overcome this limitation in the reviewer’s opinion. This book will become required reading for students enrolled in the reviewer’s measurements courses. It is suggested that it might be fruitful for other instructors to follow suit