Creating realistic objectives
- Why write objectives?
- SMART objectives
- Blooms Taxonomy
- How to use your objectives
Objectives are the key considerations when planning your lessons. What do you want your learners to achieve during your class? If they are too easy then your learners will quickly loose interest, too difficult and the same will occur. Not enough material and you will be playing for time and too much material and you will not correctly consolidate at the end. Getting the balance right can be hard so knowing your learners is important.
You should have approximately three good clear objectives for every session. The amount is not set in stone but I find this number allows the best structure for any length of time. Your objectives will have two effects:
- They will ensure you (mostly) stay on course and appear to be a calm and a proficient teacher, despite what might be going on behind the scenes!
- They will show the learners what they are expected to do and achieve upon completion.
Note: this will mostly apply to adolescent and mature learners and not children.
As any worthwhile teacher will agree realistic objectives are critical for a successful lesson however creating them may not be that straightforward. We all have the desire that our students will 'learn' something new from each session after all that is the fundamental principle of teaching right? But so many times I have seen teachers either not tell their learners what is the expected outcome from their time together or have been so vague nobody would know if it has been achieved or not. This consequently justifies the need for realistic or SMART objectives.
Throughout my years in teacher training and CPD (continues professional development) the term SMART objectives has been constantly reiterated to such point that should your objectives not be SMART then fire and brimstone shall rain down upon your class.
So what does SMART mean?
SMART is an acronym that can be applied when goal setting and is explained as follows:
- Specific
- Measurable
- Achievable
- Realistic
- Timely
Here's how to apply SMART objectives in your lesson planning:
Specific
Objectives should be specific i.e. clear and easy to understand. For example
- You have ten minutes to write three sentences describing the sound of light rain falling on a tent.
- You will write about the weather during camping.
Measurable
A measurable objective is something that when complete can be measured. In the above example achieving the objective requires three sentences, not two and not four. This can be easily measured.
Achievable
It is crucial to consider the abilities of your learners such that your objectives can be achieved. If they are unable to correctly write a sentence for example or do not possess the vocabulary to adequately describe the rain fall then the objective can not be achieved.
Realistic
A realistic objective is one that is possible to achieve. It is directed at the correct level for the learners such that it challenges them but is not beyond their abilities.
Timely
Finally the SMART objectives must be timely. This involves allocating an amount of time for each objective to be completed in. The amount of time must be specific, measurable, realistic and achievable. In the example above ten minutes is clear, it is able to be counted, it is not beyond the abilities of the hypothetical learners and can there fore be achieved.
SMART objectives are used in a very wide scope of industry sectors and not just in education. Check out the PPT below for an example I used when teaching a Personal Development Foundation Degree class.
smart.ppt |
Using Bloom's Taxonomy of words will help when writing objectives. It is fine to expect your students to learn something in your class but it is not fine to write this in your objectives! Here's the reason why: If you write your objective as
- you will learn the vowels
- you will read the vowels out load
The point here is by changing the abstract noun learn to the verb read the objective becomes more specific and as such far easier to measure.
Bloom taxonomy of words is an excellent tool for helping you to choose your objective verbs.
Benjamin Bloom created a model that specifically highlights three key areas for learning objectives.
- Cognitive
- Affective (Emotional)
- Psycho motive
- Cognitive - knowledge, comprehension, application, analysis, evaluation, and synthesis.
- Affective - receiving, responding, valuing, organising, characterising
- Psycho motive - perception, set, guided response, mechanism, complex overt response, adaptation, and origination.
Level 1 Know, 2 Comprehend, 3 Apply, 4 Analyze, 5 Synthesize, 6 Evaluate.
So you now have your shiny new SMART objectives and your ready for your class, what do you do with them?
Display them to the class for the complete duration of the contact time. Note: although your lesson may not have begun yet or has finished already learners will still be around and will still be interested and receptive so take advantage of it. This is part of of the hidden curriculum and will be addressed fully in a later article.
If you are using a computer display only then ensure they are visible on every page or at least the relevant objective is.
- Tell them what they are going to do.
- Tell them when they are doing it.
- Tell them what they have done it.
- Write them on the board so they are clearly visible through out the duration. Read them with your class at the start of each lesson and have your learners repeat them after you. Address each one in turn and explain any points that are new. Use the simple future tense e.g. 'I will read...'
- Commence your class and highlight which objective is being addressed at that time. Mark off (I usually put a large tick next to it) each one as it achieved.
- Revisit your objectives at the end of the session using the present perfect tense e.g. 'I have read...'
Creating realistic objectives is simple if you apply these rules and the result is that your class will clearly understand what is expected of them and leave with a sense of achievement at the end.
A job well done.