OBJECTIVES: THE PROBLEM OF WHAT TO TEACH

•What objectives do we want to achieve in teaching anybody

anything?
•Advocates of teaching skills for survival are in opposition to
those who would teach for intrinsic and general education.
•Memorizing facts and mastering information generally have
almost no long-term effects.
•Proponents of learning for its own sake claim that a “classical
education” will train the mind for disciplined thought.
EUCATIONAL GOALS: BLOOM’S TAXONOMY

Bloom felt that one of the major difficulties confronting anyone interested in
education was the definition of the goals, that is, what we want to strive for as
teachers, counsellors, or educational administrators.

Level One: Basic Knowledge

Students are responsible for information, ideas, material, or phenomena. They

have to know specific fact, terms and methods.

Direct questions and multiple-choice tests are applicable. The object is to test the
students ability to recall the facts, to identify and repeat the information provided.
The teacher doesn’t ask the students to form new judgements or to analyze ideas:
he or she simply tries to find out how much material they can recall.
Level Two: Comprehension

Definition
Students must show they understand the material, ideas, facts, and theories.

Assessment
A variety of procedures are applicable. Students can restate the material in
their own words, reorder or extrapolate ideas, predict or estimate. In other
words, at this level students are assessed on the basis of their capacity to act
upon, or process, information.
Assessment at this level requires more activity from the pupil than assessment
at level one. Objective or multiple-choice questions can still be used, but they
would be of a different order, since they must provide evidence that the pupils
have some understanding or comprehension of what they are saying.
Level Three: Application

Students must be able to apply their knowledge to real situations. At level

two we are satisfied if they understand the ideas. At level three we want
them to demonstrate that they can actually apply their ideas correctly.
The application of knowledge is critical because it means putting
knowledge into action, rather than merely talking about what might be
done.

Assessment
We have to go well beyond the usual procedures in order to assess in order
to assess how well students apply what they learn. The one drawback to
tests of this sort is the possibility that pupils may learn by rote how to
apply the information. The teacher needs to be aware of this possibility
and to vary application tests to ensure that pupils can genuinely put their
knowledge into practice.
Level Four: Analysis:

Definition
Analysis is essentially a more advanced aspect of level two
(comprehension). Analysis requires that pupils classify or break material
down into its component, understand the relationship between the
components, and recognize the principle, that organizes the structure or the
system.

Assessment
The ability to analyse material can be assessed in a number of ways/ we
might see whether students can identify the assumptions behind an
argument or a debate. In everyday language, this kind of analysis is called
critical thinking.
Level five: Objectives synthesis

Definition: The educatio0nal objective at level five is to learn to synthesize material. This
means making something new, bringing ideas together to form a new theory, going beyond
what is now known, providing new insights.
Assessment should be designed to produce new ideas, methods or procedures. Some obvious
examples might be writing an original short story, play, or poem; painting a picture;
composing music.

Level Six: Objective Evaluation

Pupils are developing the ability to create standards of judgements, to weigh, to examine, to
analyze, and most of all, to avoid hasty judgement. It is possible toe evaluate evaluation. The
basic principle of assessment at level six, then, consists of developing critical evaluation
skills.
Bloom’s levels one, two, and three-basic knowledge and facts, comprehension, and
application-are all clearly within the grasp of elementary-age concrete thinkers. When we
reach levels four, five, and six, we are moving toward the need for symbolic and logical
thinking in Piaget’s formal-operations sense.
EDUCATIONAL OBJECTIVES AND DEVELOPMENTAL STAGES
David Hunt: Conceptual Stages

Hunt has been able to specify the interaction between the conceptual level of the pupils and the
expectations, learning atmospheres, and conceptual level of the teachers.
Stage A-low conceptual level: Generally, thinking is concrete and stereotyped. There is a single
“right” way to learn. Rules are fixed and unchangeable. Obedience to authority is unquestioned.
Problem solving tends to be rigid. Social desirability and pleasing others are strong. Students are
anxious for closure and seek highly structured learning activities.
Stage B – moderate conceptual level: Students exhibit some evidence of toleration for
uncertainty and ambiguity and awareness of alternatives. There is some openness to new ideas,
increased independence in thinking (inner-directedness), awareness of emotions, and increased
inductive inquiry.
Stage C – high conceptual level: Students exhibit evidence of integration and synthesis in
complex intellectual and interpersonal arenas. They weigh and balance alternative and can
simultaneously process their own view and that of others. Closure is temporary. Students employ
successive approximation and principles in decision making, and they will not compromise those.
They accept full responsibility for the consequences of their own behaviour.
Attribute-Treatment Interaction

The idea of matching teaching goals and methods to pupils’ level of development is
called the attribute-(or aptitude-) treatment interaction (ATI) model. The current system
of thinking ( a pupil’s attribute) interacts with the teaching method (the treatment).
Some students need a great deal of structure, concrete directions, immediate feedback,
and so on; others don’t (Hunt, 1981). Pupils who process information and experience at
am ore advanced conceptual level prefer greater involvement in learning, more
exploratory “indirect” teaching, and participation in discussions; they can resist
premature closure (or coming to a conclusion) in problem solving. However, such an
open-ended or low-structured approach does not foster learning with pupils who are at a
less advanced conceptual level.

Silence

The individual who lives in silence is unaware of herself as a knower and feels
subservient to authority and powerless. Silence connotes not being able to speak. Words
are heard as weapons by others to divide and diminish the self. From the first perspective
it is not possible for the individual to use words to express thoughts or feelings about the
self.
Received knowledge
In this second perspective words now become central to knowing.
Knowing comes from listening to others who are the authorities. All
knowledge comes from outside the self; it is a view of the world and
education that is concrete and dualistic. Everything is either right or
wrong, black or white; facts are to be memorized and regurgitated.
The received knower believes it is beyond one’s capacity to develop
or to create one’s own knowledge.

Subjective knowledge

The source of knowing now comes form one’s own personal

experience. The subjective knower begins to listen to her inner voice,
and as it comes alive, this individual becomes her own authority and
her gut feelings are infallible.
Procedural knowledge
The self actively listens and carefully speaks after observing and evaluating various
perspectives. The voice of reason permeates through one’s attitudes about authority, the
world and oneself. Reason coupled with intuition and feeling predominate. Two
categories evolve at this position, separate and connected knowing.
The separate way of knowing functions under standard rules and conventions of rational
thought, and the separate procedural knower is more concerned with principles and
critical thinking procedures. In the connected way of knowing, knowledge and reason are
gained through personal experience and relationships; the connected procedural knower
is additionally concerned with caring, empathy, and patience.

Constructed knowledge
Speaking and listening are used equally in active dialogue with others, and knowledge is
constructed by persons who experience each other as equals. Here one “finds a place for
reason and intuition and the expertise of others”. The individual is aware that truth is
based on the context in which it is embedded; thus one’s frame of reference is important
and directs one’s knowledge and understanding. Constructed knowers are able to weave
together reason and emotion, the objective and the subjective.
LESSON PLANNING: THE VEHICLE FOR EDUCATIONAL GOALS by Madeline
Hunter (1984).

Step One: Anticipatory set

The first step is to increase the students’ interest and motivation to learn the material. It
‘s an attempt to get the students to “lean toward” you with an orienting question.

Step two: Objective and purpose

The initial rhetorical question sets the stage. The teacher now moves to tell students
what the point of the unit is and why it’s important. This is particularly necessary for
concrete thinkers, those at low to moderate conceptual levels.

Step three: Input

Essentially, this is where you select and apply your specific teaching strategy. It could
be a lecture (Model One), a small-group discovery (Model Two), an interpersonal
discussion (Model Three), or a blend or direct and indirect methods.
Hunter did find that one of the most common errors in teaching was the failure to link
input with teaching objectives.
Step four: Modelling
Think of modelling as a demonstration accompanied by verbal description of what you want
the students to do. The point of modelling is to ensure that the students employ the process in
a manner that facilitates their understanding of the input.

Step five: Checking for understanding

Hunter makes it clear that effective planning of lessons is interactive. Thus, some time should
be set aside for questions to check student understanding.

Step six: Guided practice

The students do the activity under your direct supervision. Guided pract5ice precedes the last
step, independent practice. The idea is simply to prevent too many errors from occurring
before you set them free to work on their own.

Step seven: Independent practice

Students work on the material alone or in small groups without direct supervision. This is
basically a test of the first six steps.