Goals

You should have completed your needs assessment with a clear statement of what the goal of the instruction is going to be. This may or may not be in the form of an instructional objective (we'll get to them soon), but it should definitely have several important characteristics: it should be student-centered; it should not be "fuzzy;" it should include activities that are clearly observable.

Student-centered. It is not enough in your instructional goal to discuss what you (or another instructor or an instructional system) will do. You must have a clear idea of what the students will be able to do at the end of the instruction that they couldn't do before. Sometimes we state our instructional goals like this: This unit will present the basic concepts of .... or  This instruction will cover the skills needed to... What is wrong with these statements? Nothing, ordinarily, except that they can be achieved with or without students. We could present basic concepts to an empty room and still attain that goal. We want to do better. We want the presentation to have an effect on students. The goal should state what that effect will be.

Not fuzzy. Robert Mager talks a lot about "fuzzy" goals, goals that do not allow us to decide whether we have met them. Goals can be fuzzy for many reasons. For example, they often refer to things going on inside a person that we can't observe or measure directly. Perhaps we have a goal that a student will appreciate art or another one that states the student will understand trigonometry. Both of these are admirable goals, but still fuzzy. How do you know when it has occurred? Do you ask the student "Do you appreciate art better now?" or "Do you understand trigonometry well enough to pass the course?" Odds are they will answer yes in any case, but the probability increases with the importance of the goal. If saying "Yes" to questions like this increase the chance of passing or if that answer results in less work, then many many of us will succumb to the temptation. Another reason for a goal to be fuzzy might be simply that we don't understand what is involved in achieving it. There is a brief procedure in your textbook (pp. 19-20) to help you control fuzzies.

Observable. The key way to make sure that a goal is not fuzzy, of course, is to focus on observable behaviors. Years ago, when behaviorists reigned supreme in psychology and education, this was something we took for granted. As we move away from behaviorism into other theories and philosophies, it is important not to throw the baby out with the bathwater. The behaviorists made some good points. We are much more likely today to talk seriously of what goes on within a person. For example, we can discuss a students' "understanding" without embarrassment. At the same time, however, we should remember that we cannot directly observe whether someone understands a concept. We must infer that from what they do. A key goal in American History courses might be to understand the causes of the Civil War. Since a students understanding is not necessarily on public view, we could list a wide variety of actual, observable behaviors that would persuade us: writing an essay, writing a research paper, developing a multimedia program, participating actively in an extensive discussion, explaining the causes orally to a classmate, and so on. No one of these is necessarily better than the others, since it may depend on the learners, the situation, and the actual wording of the goal.