Page 52 - 2016基督教教育‧國際研討會

2-11 Setting Goals and Structuring Objectives for the Classroom

Ms. Ramona White

An old adage I once heard goes something like this: “One who aims at nothing will
surely hit it.” While the thought is somewhat absurd, it is not unlike the teacher who faces her
class day after day giving information and leading her students through a variety of activities.
She hopes somehow her students will glean information that will make them better students or
avid learners or bright graduates who exemplify the school’s vision and mission statement.
These are her goals, and good goals they are -- absolutely necessary for effective teaching.
But they are not enough.

To be most effective, a lesson must have something else – it must have a learning
objective, sometimes called a behavioral objective or a terminal objective. In other words, a
good lesson is planned around an objective which answers these two questions: (1)
specifically, what do you want your students to learn for this lesson, and (2) how will you
determine when your students have learned the lesson?

For example, the goal one sets for an elementary student may be that he learn how to do
long division or give a book report. For the high school student, the goal may be that he solve
complicated math equations or learn the difference between a Shakespearean sonnet and an
Italian sonnet. These are good goals, appropriate goals, but they are not enough. Good
teaching requires both goals and objectives, and these are different.

The objective goes further. A learning objective will tell how the goal is to be
accomplished and how the teacher will know when the learning has been successful. It will
state in specific and measureable terms what the student must do to get where the teacher
wants him to go. Note the following example which would be appropriate for a high school
class.

Goal: Students will be able to read and understand two types of sonnets: English and
Italian.

Objective: Students will be able to analyze both an English sonnet and an Italian sonnet
and contrast them according to rhyme and structure.

Once students accomplish the objective, the teacher knows she has met her goal for a
particular lesson.

In summary, the effective teacher knows how to differentiate between a goal and an
objective, how to establish strong goals and finally, how to accomplish those goals through
well-written and well-executed learning objectives.

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