When I was hired to be a science teacher in a small private school, the first thing my mother (who is a retired public teacher now) taught me is how to write a lesson plan. It was not a nitty gritty discussion, just the basic contents: write the topic, the learning objectives, list the class activities and prepare the quiz. How little I know about the purpose and process of developing a lesson plan with very modest focus on writing the learning objectives.
After reading module 2C and other resources, I have summarized the key points of writing learning objectives. First the purpose, why do we have to write the learning objectives? The core of lesson planning is writing the objectives as clear and as complete as possible. Russell (2012) states that planning and writing the lesson objectives: (1) makes the teachers feel empowered in their teaching; (2) helps teachers establish a sense of purpose and subject matter focus; (3) provide them the opportunity to study the lesson before teaching it; (4) ensures them that their strategies will work and finally (5) will help them to link daily lessons to broader goals or curriculum. It should also be noted that learning objectives have profound positive effects to students. The file from Carnegie Mellon stated that good and clear learning objectives will help the students differentiate the types of knowledge; helps the students to practice the right skill; helps the teacher balance the instruction for novice, intermediate and experts; helps the students learn the material in variety of context and lastly, will help them build metacognitive skills.
Based on the various resources; learning objects should have the following components: (1) stating the audience: the students; (2) measurable and observable behavior or performance; (3) the condition where and when the performance / behavior should be observed; (4) the criterion/ parameter or degree that will tell when the behavior/ performance passes or fails and lastly; (5) the restraints or limitation when necessary.
I gathered various sources of learning objective. First, I checked a Biology book written from a foreign author:
Describe the fluid-mosaic model of a membrane structure.
Identify the three different types of membrane proteins.
Explain the technique of freeze fracture electron microscope
Second, I remembered getting sample lesson plans from DEP ED. Shown below are the objectives:
Describe the cell part involved the in obtaining energy
Describe the energy location and function of chlorophyll pigment
State the requirements of photosynthesis
Third, I checked the DEP ED K-12 curriculum and copied the Learning Competencies and Performance Tasks (last two):
Explain the postulates of the cell theory
Describe the structure and function of major and subcellular organelles
Construct a 3D model of a plant/animal/ bacterial cell using recyclable materials
Construct a cell membrane model from indigenous or recyclable material
Based on the three sets of learning objectives, the behavior or performance of each are very evident. What are lacking are the degree of behavior/performance and the condition from where the behavior/performance should be observed. Since these are skeletal in nature, I suspected that these are general objectives. Cruickshank et al (2012) and Russell & Airasian (2012) both noted that general objectives are needed in some situations like stating State or National Objectives. In my examples, all are written for general users: textbook for readers, DEPED lessons plans and K-12 curriculum for public use. I also noticed that general learning objectives failed to consider other domains of learning such as the affective and psychomotor. It is possible that these missing domains should only be included in instructional objectives or those for specific purposes such as the lesson plan. Most of the learning objectives too, for general purposes, are only at knowledge or comprehension levels.
I tried to check a copy of WLAP (Weekly Lesson Activity Plan) from a university and the learning objectives are as follows hoping to find a more specific learning objectives:
Explain what is Public Speaking and its benefits
Explain the origin of development of Public speaking as an academic endeavor
Describe the levels and elements of communication
Explain how the eight critical thinking skills can help you develop and evaluate speeches
To my dismay, these learning objectives from a WLAP are also too general for various reasons: only the behavior/ performance mentioned; lacks the affective and psychomotor skills needed and the level is also at knowledge or comprehension level.
Writing very specific learning objectives, though necessary, is counterproductive sometimes. Cruickshank et al (2012) summarized these: (1) specific learning objectives are difficult to write; (2) specific learning objectives oftentimes misses the bigger picture of the topic; (3) stating specific observations that a student should observe may not consider unintentional or accidental learning, for example: taking a walk in a garden may not always elicit positive reactions but also the negative ones; and lastly (4) experienced teachers rarely write very specific objectives.
So where do we focus, writing general or very specific objectives?
Russell & Airasian. (2012). Classroom Assessment: Concepts and Applications. New York. McGraw Hill Education.
Cruickshank el at. (2012). The Act of Teaching. New York. McGraw Hill Education.