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