To Research Design Explained Home Page
Introduction
to Learning Objectives (prepared by Randall Osborne, Mark Mitchell, and Janina Jolley) for
Mitchell, M. L. & Jolley, J. M.
(2013). Research design explained. (8th ed.).
Belmont, CA:
Wadsworth/Cengage.
Although students often believe that they
“know the material,” professors often disagree. According to
Osborne (2001), one problem is that many students believe that “knowing the
material” means memorizing facts, whereas most faculty expect that
“knowing the material” means more than rote memorization.
To help
you understand and meet professor expectations, we have constructed
objectives based on Bloom’s (1956) taxonomy of cognitive objectives.
These objectives should help you by telling you (a) which concepts are most important and (b) the depth at
which students need to understand those concepts.
To
illustrate, consider the following objective: “Describe the key elements
of science.” This objective tells you to focus on identifying and
understanding the key elements of science. Note that the objective does not ask you to provide examples
of the elements, critique the elements, or to rank the relative importance of
each element. In other words, the
wording of the objective tells you how sophisticated your understanding
of the concept needs to be. To get a better idea of how objectives can help
you know what you should learn, study the box below.
Bloom’s Taxonomy of
Cognitive Objectives
2.) Comprehension – an expressed understanding of the
information. Signaled by words such as describe, explain, and discuss.
3.) Application – an ability to apply information to
real world problems and/or issues. Signaled by words such as outline, provide,
practice, solve, illustrate, use, construct, calculate, compute, determine, demonstrate, show, operate, try, and
manipulate.
4.) Analysis – involves breaking a problem down
into subparts and recognizing the connections between those subparts. During this process, meaningless pieces
of information are identified and discarded. Signaled by words such as analyze,
defend, examine, compare, contrast, distinguish, revise, discriminate, dissect,
experiment, subdivide, classify, investigate, and question.
5.) Synthesis – an ability to reassemble the
remaining subparts (those that were not discarded as meaningless) into a more
meaningful whole. Signaled by words such as produce, propose, compose,
generate, devise, combine, create, forecast, design, invent, and formulate.
6.) Evaluation - the
proposed solution is implemented (at least at the logic level) and an attempt
is made to assess the degree to which that solution resolves the problem.
Signaled by words such as evaluate, rate, judge, prioritize, decide, assess,
reject, recommend, verify, accept, appraise, criticize, and justify.
When you use the objectives
prepared for Research Design Explained, you should be sure that you know what level of understanding each
objective requires. To help you know what level of understanding the objective
requires, we have placed superscripted numbers (e.g., 1, 2,
3, 4, 5, and 6) next to the key
verb of each objective. Thus, an objective that contains “define1”
requires a lower level of understanding than an objective that contains
“examine4.”If, after looking at the key verb, still aren't sure about what level of understanding is required, note
that the superscript number attached to each objective refers to the six types
of objectives listed in the box above. Specifically,
1 – refers to a knowledge objective,
2 – refers to a comprehension objective,
3 – refers to an application objective,
4 – refers to an analysis objective,
5 – refers to a synthesis objective, and
6 – refers to an evaluation objective.
Once you know the objective’s requirements, write out your answer to each objective. Realize that higher-level objectives (one with a superscript of 3 or above) often build upon lower level objectives that came before it. For example, an objective that requires you to apply information to the solution of a problem (application level) also requires you (a) to access that information (knowledge level) and (b) to understand that information (comprehension level).
If you come to a lower-level
objective (one with a 1 or 2 superscript) that you cannot
answer, go back and study the relevant sections in your text. If you come to a
higher-level objective (one with a superscript of 3 or above) that you cannot
answer, re-examine your answers to the lower-level objectives that come before
the objective you are having trouble answering. You may find that your answers to those lower-level objectives are useful for helping you answer the higher-level objective. If they are not, your answer to the lower-level objective may be incomplete or inaccurate.