DOMAINS OF LEARNING

Learning is a lifelong process that takes place at many points in our lives and allows

us to improve ourselves or acquire new skills. Learning has some integrals that make it clear

to understand when viewed from the student's side and make it understandable and clear.

Therefore, it is beneficial for teachers to ensure that they are using these integrals, which we

classified as four essential domains of learning.

The first domain is the cognitive domain. Cognitive domain is concerned with the

reception, processing, and application of information. (Bloom,1956 as cited in

Vaughan,2019). The cognitive domain includes knowledge and the development of

intellectual skills. Due to Bloom's definition, cognitive learning aims to improve learning

abilities. There are six essential elements of cognitive learning listed: knowledge,

comprehension, application, analysis, synthesis, and evaluation. When we examine these

major items of cognitive learning, the data learned and kept in memory is knowledge, the

concept that helps to assimilate the meaning of information is comprehension, putting the

learned data into practice is an application, the idea that provides the distinction between

inferences and facts is analysis, ability to use the data is synthesis and combining different

data to create a new meaning and making judgments is called evaluation.

The second domain of cognitive learning is the affective domain. The affective

domain mainly aims to create selected attention by improving an individual's attitudes,

interests, and motivations. Active participation during the lesson, being a good listener, and

communicating effectively with classmates and teachers can be shown as examples of

affective domain goals. Just like the cognitive domain, the affective domain also has some

majors. It will be clearer to explain by assuming we are in a math class when explaining these

majors. The first of this subheading is receiving, and the purpose of this step is a willingness

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to listen and awareness. Listening to the introduction of the math lesson attentively is the

objective of the receiving. The second major of the affective domain is responding, which

means using the information supplied during the lesson by active participation. Volunteering,

and commanding, are some examples of responding. Helping the teacher while preparing the

course content voluntarily can be the objective of responding. Another major affective

domain is valuing, which defines a willingness to be evaluated as valuing specific phenomena

or commodities. The goal here can be to solve the question. The fourth major of the affective

domain is organizing, also known as conceptualizing. Organizing mainly aims to formulate,

examine, resolve conflicts between values and integrate a new value into a person's set of

values. The objective here is to determine how to pick the most suitable studying system for

maths class.

Last but not least affective learning domain means characterization. In other words,

characterization internalizes values. Behavior defines the learner's character, and

characterization has a value system that controls behavior. According to the math lesson

example, the best role of characterization can be shown as regular study and practice of one's

math lesson.

The third domain of affective learning is the psychomotor domain. The psychomotor

domain includes goals involving manual and motor abilities. (Kapfer,1971) As understood

from its name, it associates mental activities with physical activities, including the work of

motor-skill areas.

The first major of the psychomotor domain is perception which is the most basic level

of processing information by using the senses such as seeing, smelling, or hearing. Guessing

where a ball will land after it is thrown can be an excellent example of processing. The

second major is set. Set defines our readiness to react or act when things are about to happen.

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Such as, students know what's going to happen when teachers countdown from three ends.

The third major is guided response. The guided response contains the process of learning

based on trials and errors. For instance, how to make good cookies by following a recipe with

many trials. Another major is a mechanism in which we improve intermediate skills and turn

them into habitual skills, such as writing an essay using the existing knowledge. One another

major is adaptation. Adaptation defines a person who has well-developed skills and modifies

them to fit particular requirements. The last major of the psychomotor domain is origination.

People need to find out new ways to fit a specific situation, and creativity is based on his/her

skills. Creating a new training routine can be an origination example.

The last domain of learning is the interpersonal domain. The interpersonal domain

focuses on learners' interaction and aims to have a healthy, mutual relationship between

students. The interpersonal domain has majors such as; proposing, bringing in, disagreeing,

and seeking information. Active participation, recommending new ideas, and observing are

some significant parts of interpersonal learning.

When we consider all those four domains of learning, it is clear that they are the key

factors of learning, and they have so many benefits both for learners and teachers. Besides

being beneficial separately, they can be used together at once. For instance, let the teacher

give a project assignment for the physics lesson. It is required to use graphic and visual

elements to prepare for this assignment. In addition, it is given as a group assignment. The

student is asked to use both cognitive and interpersonal learning domains in such a case.

As a result, it is clear that these majors have two features in common: collaborating

and communicating, and they all strengthen education which makes these domains

indispensable. Therefore, learning can be developed by using any application by combining

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 these four domains as long as it is for the benefit of the teacher and the student by

establishing a healthy and efficient education environment.

References

Kapfer, M.B. (1971). Behavioral objectives in curriculum development: selected readings

and bibliography.

Vaughan C.A. (1980). Identifying Course Goals: Domains and Levels of Learning. American

Sociology Association.7(3), pp .265-279

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INSTRUCTIONAL GOALS AND OBJECTIVES

Today, many factors affect the development and implementation of education. These

factors have many benefits, such as increasing the quality of educational instruction and

making learning more effective by considering student and teacher motivation. Two

significant factors are at the heart of teaching and significantly shape education: instructional

goals and instructional objectives. Although they look similar because of their coverage

areas, there are some distinct elements that differentiate them.

Instructional goals are selected and refined by answering questions about a particular

problem and then answering the expected performance for each student, which does not

include any kind of success criteria; it is a criterion that evaluates only the learner's self-

success and shows the expected performance. In addition, there is no scale where

instructional goals can be measured quickly and easily. It can be said that instructional goals

are a helpful step in helping learners reach instructional objectives. For example, a 5th-grade

student is asked to prepare a homework assignment in which she can choose a part of the

house for the home unit in her English lesson and express with visuals the items in this

section and which ones she/he can use. At the end of this assignment, students can explain

preferences and the basic concepts about the part of the house they have chosen. Furthermore,

students can tell the names of the household items with can / may modals which are the

instructional goals here.

Instructional objects, which we say that instructional goals have a step towards

reaching them, are called specific student behaviors that can be observed and measured in a

short time. Just as no student's teaching style is the same, no student's learning style is

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different. When writing objectives, it is significant to indicate what the learner is supposed to

be able to do, not what the instructor wants to do (Mager, 1997).The primary purpose of

instructional objectives is to provide the best performance by teaching each student the most

appropriate learning method. Suppose we consider the homework given over the home unit

mentioned in the instructional goal in this homework. In that case, the instructional goal is

that students can express themselves effectively in front of the class while using the modals

(can/might, etc.) in the unit by specifying their preferences and using the essential vocabulary

such as the names of the household items in the unit.

Instructional objectives have four basic subheadings. These subheadings can be listed

as cognitive, affective, psychomotor, and interpersonal domains. These domains, which touch

on many issues such as physical skills, comprehension, effective communication, evaluation

of the given situation, and awareness, are essential in determining the instructional objectives

and preparing the curriculum objective and curriculum. In addition to these domains, there

are steps that the objectives specified, respectively. The first of these steps is the detection of

the audience which means analyzing the learner, such as determining their level of the course.

After selecting the target audience, the second step is the definition of the attitude suitable for

the target audience. The third step is the condition. Condition is the perception of the current

situation, such as under what conditions the lesson will be taught and how much knowledge

the student has mastered. The last step is a degree that generally answers the question ‘how

much,’ such as how many criteria can be met at the end of the class or how much

achievement will be provided.

As can be seen from the examples mentioned above, the most apparent differences

between instructional goals and objects are; instructional goals are generalized statements,

they cannot be validated, they are more general, they cannot be measured and come before

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objectives, but besides, instructional objectives are specific statements, concrete and

measurable.

In light of this information, there are some crucial points to consider when preparing

instructional goals and objectives. Instructional goals should be identified at both high and

low levels of learning. (Olivia,2009). While preparing instructional goals and objectives, it

should be paid attention to comply with some rules, such as being related to the objective and

curriculum instruction, which covers topics such as course content, thinking skills, and

avoiding vague phrases that are measurable or not obscure in writing.

Of course, the applied objectives and goals need to be validated to determine whether

they are learning objectives. We can understand this by analyzing what is explained in the

course, getting ideas from classmates, colleagues, or teachers, or comparing content from

different reference books.

To sum up, instructional goals and objectives have the most critical role as facilitators.

Therefore, it is vital to determine the correctness of the information you get to structure the

quality and accuracy of lectures and identify the course content to increase the quality of your

education and make it efficient.

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 References

Mager, R. F. (1997). Measuring instructional results: How to Find your learning objectives

have been achieved. (3rd ed.). Atlanta, GA: CEP Press.

Oliva, P. F. (2009). Instructional Goals and Objectives. In Developing the Curriculum (7th

Ed.). Pearson.