Writing Performance Objectives

Objective: This job aid will guide you through steps of developing a performance objective. It will also offer some examples.

What is a performance objective?

A detailed description of what the learner will be able to do upon completion of a unit of instruction. (Dick, Carey & Carey)

Objectives are intended to describe performance expectations and are used as the basis for deriving the content and procedures effective for accomplishing those objectives. (Robert Mager)

Performance objectives make tangible a vision of what learners should know, do, or feel at the end of a planned instructional experience. They should contain statements about at least two of the following three components: performance, criterion, and condition.

The objective:

• Is derived from identification of desired skills identified in the instructional analysis of an environment.
• It's the description of the skill(s) necessary for the achievement of the final desired result.
• The objectives will be a foundation for developing your test items.

What is the desired outcome?

Determine what it is you want to teach, what your expected outcome is and how you will measure that outcome.

• Will the outcome be exhibited by a change in attitude? If so, motivational analysis is part of your process to decide on objectives.
• Is the learner expected to provide the instructor with verbal information? If so you will want to position the learner in a way that will facilitate the discussion of inputs/outputs with regard to the tasks and steps in a procedure. It maybe an explanation of the benefits or limitations of the choices made in a decision process completed by the learner or possibly the evaluation concerning the relation between processes.
• If accomplishment of an intellectual skill is the desired outcome, such as an ability to differentiate between various concepts, theories or proposals, then you will want to position your material by developing an objective that promotes reflective thinking.

Development of performance objectives:

• Edit the goal to reflect eventual performance context
• Write terminal objective to reflect context of learning environment
• Write objectives for each step in the goal analysis

Verbs to consider when thinking about objectives:

Performance objective diagram

References:

Dick, W. and Carey, L., Carey, J. O. (2001). The Systematic Design of Instruction (5th ed.). NY : Addison-Wesley
USDA Natural Resources Conservations Service, National Employee Development Center: http://www.nedc.nrcs.usda.gov/isd/isd5.html

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