Objectives The Research behind and Benefits of Using Objectives

Objectives of Presentation Upon completion of this presentation, you will be able to: –describe why using objectives is “best practice”. –discuss the research behind objectives. –explain what the educational experts say about objectives.

Guiding Questions for LZHS What do we want students to learn? How will we know that students have learned it? How will we respond when students don’t learn? How will we respond when students already know it? –Course objectives help us answer the first question

History of Objectives Tyler’s (1949) four principles in the development of curriculum are: –What educational purposes should the school seek to attain? –What educational experiences can be provided that are likely to attain these purposes? –How can these educational experiences be effectively organized? –How can we determine whether these purposes are being attained? (p. 1) Education is a process of changing the behavior patterns of people. It is clear that educational objectives, then, represent the kinds of changes in behavior that an educational institution seeks to bring about in its students. - Ralph Tyler (Basic Principles of Curriculum and Instruction)

Research and Data After posting and communicating daily learning objectives, the results displayed increased student achievement and motivation. The full results can be found in Classroom Instruction that Works (2001). Synthesis StudyFocusAverage Effect Size Percentile Gain Wise & Okey, 1983General effects of setting goals or objectives.4818 Wallberg, 1999General effects of setting goals or objectives.4618 Lipsey & WilsonGeneral effects of setting goals or objectives.5521

Research and Data

Benefits for Teachers Clarity of destination –To begin with the end in mind means to start with a clear understanding of your destination. It means to know where your going so that you better understand where you are now so that they steps you take are always in the right direction. - Steven Covey (The 7 Habits of Highly Effective People)

Benefits for Teachers Clarity of destination –If the curriculum is not clear, the assessment will be equally unclear, and therefore not effective. –Steve Chappuis –(Leading Assessment for Learning) »Assessment Training Institute

Benefits for Teachers Academic Freedom –The purpose of objectives is not to restrict spontaneity or constrain academic freedom; but to ensure that learning is focused clearly enough that both students and teacher know what is going on, and so learning can be objectively measured.

Benefits for Teachers Academic Freedom –Different archers have different styles, so do different teachers. Thus, you can shoot your arrows (objectives) many ways. The important thing is that they reach your target (goals) and score a bulls-eye.

Benefits for Teachers Framework for collaboration –According to Chappuis (2006), in order to be effective, teachers need to have ownership of the written curriculum and process.

Benefits for Teachers Framework for collaboration –Teachers need documents to be able to work with one another to set and achieve clear goals. Schools need to give teachers the time and support they need to work together to translate standards, benchmarks, frameworks, and grade-level curriculum into clear, teachable, and assessable learning targets, (Chappuis, 2006).

Benefits for Students Clarity of destination –One of the first things a person wants to know is "What am I going to learn in this class?" which is not the same as "What will this class cover?" –Learning objectives are brief descriptions of specific things a learner will know or be able to do.

Benefits for Students Clarity of destination –Students will understand expectations. –Assessment and grading is based on the objectives.

Benefits for Students Clarity of destination –The benefits of clear targets to students are indisputable. As soon as students have a clear vision of what is expected of them, they are then led in the correct direction. Usually students do not recall what was learned on a daily basis; however, by verbalizing and visually posting the learning objectives, students had a clear perspective of the daily goals of the class. –Shirley Clarke, 2001 –Unlocking Formative Assessment »Institute of Education, University of London

Benefits for Parents Partnership with home –Parental involvement showed an even stronger correlation to student achievement than characteristics such as class size, school size, or student to teacher ratio. These components foster an increase in the motivation and achievement of students based on clear communication of learning objectives between teachers, students, and parents. –Peace, Mayo, and Watkins, 2000 –“Becoming Consumers of Our Own Research: What really makes a difference in improving learning” »The Journal of Southeastern Regional Association of Teacher Educators

Benefits for Parents Partnership with home –If parents don’t know how to identify the standards, or learning objectives, represented on various assessments, parents will be unable to help their children see, for example, that two of the seven objectives gave their child trouble, and that he or she did fine on five of them. The child will be unable to see where he or she has had success in learning or to identify where their difficulties lie. –Arter, Chappuis, & Stiggins, 2004 –Classroom Assessment for Student Learning: Doing It Right-Using It Well »Assessment Training Institute

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