Writing Instructional Objectives

Instructional objectives are clear and concise statement of the skill or skills that the students are expected to perform after a unit of instruction. It includes the level of proficiency to be demonstrated and the special conditions under which the skill must be demonstrated.

An instructional objective should be stated in observable, behavioral terms, in order for two or more individuals to agree that a student has or has not displayed the learning outcome in question.

A complete instructional objective includes:

1. an observable behavior ( action verb specifying the learning outcome)
if an activity implies a specific product or result, it is considered an outcome. Instructional objective need to include the end product of the instructional procedure. It is on this end product that the test item is based.

One needs to determine whether the outcome is measurable (observable), otherwise, the unobservable should be changed to observable outcome.

2. any special conditions under which the behavior must be displayed
instructional objectives describe any special conditions in which the learning will take place. If the observable learning outcome is to take place at a particular time, in a particular place, with particular materials, equipment, tools or other resources, the n the conditions must be stated explicitly in the objective.

example: Given a calculator, multiply two-digit numbers, correct to the nearest whole number

3. the performance level considered sufficient to demonstrate mastery

an instructional objective indicates how well the behavior is to be performed. For any given objective a number of test items will be written. The criterion level of acceptable performance specifies how many of these items the students must get correct for him/her to have attained the objective.

example: Given 20 two-digit addition problems, the student will compute 90% correctly.