One of the most important thing to remember when writing learning objectives is that you will be using them to create student activities and assessments. Thus objectives should be clearly measurable and provide a way to determine if students fulfilled them (the signs of understanding) and how will you know that they indeed have done so (evidence of student learning). In other words, a learning objective is measurable when the participant can perform a task identified in the learning objective. Therefore, they should be focusing on concrete actions and behaviors.
The process of writing the objectives can be broken into three simple parts with the following questions:
- Performance – What will students be able to do? (must be measurable, use action verbs)
- Condition – How/under what conditions will students be able to do it?
- Criteria – How well will students be able to do it and what will be the minimum level of evidence/achievement in order for student’s performance to be acceptable?
The most common wrong words defining performance used in writing an objective are “know” and “understand” which can not be directly demonstrated and measured. (However, you can start thinking of your objectives in terms of “know” and “understand” and then asking yourself, “What specific evidence will I needed for students to demonstrate that they “know” and “understand”?”)
For example:
[one_half]
- Performance — explain how (measurable) ….. vs understand (unmeasurable)
- Condition — in a three page report
- Criteria — 3 research references[/one_half]
[one_half_last]
- Performance — analyze (measurable) …. vs know (unmeasurable)
- Condition — watching a video
- Criteria — using key points made in the video
[/one_half_last]
NEED MORE MEASURABLE VS UNMEASURABLE examples
Rudimentary example of how all three parts work as parts of a single lesson objective:
At the end of this lesson students will be able to…
- (Performance) students will be able to discuss how the recycling of old culture makes a new one
- (Condition) watching “Embracing the Remix” TedTalk from Kirby Furguson
- (Criteria) using 3 key points outlined in the talk
______ - After watching “Embracing the Remix” TedTalk from Kirby Furguson (condition) students will be able to discuss (performance) how the recycling of old culture makes a new one using 3 key points outlined in the talk (criteria).
NOTE: When you start thinking of objectives including all three parts you are starting to structure activities and assignments.
Since learning objective is measurable when the participant can perform a task, action or behavior identified in the objective, they have to be defined by action verbs:
- After watching “Embracing the Remix” TedTalk from Kirby Furguson (condition) students will be able to discuss (performance) how the recycling of old culture makes a new one using 3 key points outlined in the talk (criteria).
Activity:
Check your Knowledge: identifying the components of a performance-based learning objective
As we have learned, a well-written action-based objective must have the following parts:
1. Performance — answering the question: What will students be able to do? and has an action-based verb which describes an observable, measurable behavior, or skill.
[Learner will describe how to enter the highway using an on-ramp]
2. Condition — answering the question: How/under what conditions will students be able to do it?
[Given a map of the U.S., learner will describe how to get to N.Y.C. from Boston.]
3. Criteria — for determining success. Answering the question: How well will students be able to do it and what will be the minimum level of evidence/achievement in order for student’s performance to be acceptable?
[Given a map of the U.S., learner will describe how to get to N.Y.C. from Boston
with no errors.]
In the questions below, please identify the components in red [performance, condition or criteria] found in the following performance-based learning objectives.