Educational Objectives: Definition, Models, and Integrative Approaches

Educational Objectives: Definition and Models

Definition of Objectives

Educational objectives are the intentions that guide educational planning and the implementation of school activities. They are needed to meet the major educational goals explicit in our legal system. Objectives provide a basic reference for teachers when planning their educational proposals.

Prescriptive Model and Goal Formulation

The prescriptive model emerged in the early twentieth century, reflecting a technical mentality particularly concerned with profitability parameters.

This model significantly influences the approach to objectives. Depending on its design, the curriculum determines the content, methods, and means of proposed activities, and assessment arises. Arguably, in the prescriptive model, the objectives become the central axis around which the entire curriculum is structured.

Humanist Model and Goal Setting

Based on current humanist psychology represented by Rogers and Maslow, the humanist model reacts against the objectives-driven approach. It represents a number of approaches that question the functionality and practicality of predetermining objectives.

These models present themselves as facilitators of learning and educational value in themselves, rather than according to predetermined purposes.

Integrative Positions on Formulating Objectives

Given the two opposing positions (prescriptive and humanist models), an integrative approach offers a better solution to raise the educational process. This approach is characterized by its complexity and diversity of proposed solutions, which can be classified in two ways:

First Perspective: Prescriptive Model Alignment

This perspective, represented by Eisner, aligns with John Dewey's conception that ennobles the individual responsible for their own formative process. Thus, the teacher's mission is primarily to stimulate and counsel the student's learning process. The school has a dual responsibility: on the one hand, transmitting culture through the assimilation of codes and intellectual skills, and on the other hand, training students to contribute to culture by interpreting and reworking the material they encounter.

Second Perspective: Science of Thought and Decision Making

Representatives like Yinger and Clark move away from the prescriptive model to focus on the science of thought and decision-making in proactive and interactive classroom situations. It is designed in 3 stages:

• Step 1: Formulation of the problem caused by the interaction of various factors.
• Step 2: Resolve the problem through a mechanism called "design cycle".
• Step 3: Implementation of the plan, evaluation, and routinization.

This approach does not reject goals and objectives but integrates them into the process, arising as potential expectations from the complexity of the situation.

From this perspective, educational planning is a decision-making process that occurs before instructional development.

Elements and Parts of Objectives

• Subject: There must always be a subject, typically the student.
• Conduct: Expressed with a verb in the imperative. The formulation of an objective should conform to the type of content: conceptual (compare, explain, analyze), procedural (organize, utilize, observe), or attitudinal (values, interests, OK).
• Content: Along with the verb, it is at the core of the target. It is the direct object of the sentence.
• Intent: There should always be some intention in the mind of the programmer; this will be the indirect object of the sentence.
• Conditions: These are the criteria that facilitate the objectification of execution of teaching objectives. They are interesting for more accurate evaluation, implementation, and monitoring of achievement.