Planning Issues - 

Selecting Appropriate Objectives /Outcomes

Many trainees have difficulty formulating objectives. The usual problem is that they lack precision. For example, they use of a phrase such as ‘to look at a picture’ is not very helpful. It does not indicate why the pupils are looking at the picture and is certainly too vague to present any opportunity for assessing either understanding or skill. Even statements such ‘to develop source skills’ are too vague and invite the question ‘which source skills?’

Although it is not the intention of this booklet to be too prescriptive, you will find you have greater clarity about what you are trying to achieve if you attend to the detail and precision when formulating objectives. The reward will come in the emphases you make when teaching the lesson and the help it will give to your formative assessment of your pupils’ progress.

It can be argued that useful objectives can be built with FOUR blocks of phrases:

1. The Stem
2. The infinitive or 'action' words
3. Content details
4. Method of achievement

1. The Stem

This is the group of words you can use to begin every statement of objective. If you are producing duplicated lesson plan proformas these can be built in to reduce the time you spend on lesson planning. Usual stems are:

To enable the pupil(s)….. or

At the end of the lesson the pupil(s) should be able…….

Such stems ensure that your focus is on your expectations of the pupils and as such prevent a mixture of objectives for the teacher as well as the pupil. It also ensures you do not make statements such as ‘to study the Peasant’s Revolt’, which could more accurately be described as the general aim of the lesson rather than an objective or learning outcome.

2. The Infinitive or Action Words

These words are crucial to your thinking through what you are trying to achieve with your pupils. Again this is an area with which some trainees have difficulties. The phrase ‘to look at’ has already been mentioned. Others that can cause difficulties include ‘to be aware of’. The reason for this is that usually, although not always, an objective will be formulated in a manner that can lead to its assessment. So, for example, ‘to describe’ should lead to evidence of description; ‘to explain’ an explanation, ‘to draw’ a drawing and to create a time-line, just that. In other words the objectives should lead naturally to an end-product.

At times this will be less tangible. ‘To recall the events of the battle of Bosworth by giving oral answers’ will enable you to find out that some of the class know the answers and reinforce the key points of previous lessons, but it has its limitations as a means of assessing all the pupils.

Some objectives will relate to attitudes and values, which you hope to develop over a period of time and are not easy to assess in any precise way. Yet, for the most part in a subject such as history, we are seeking outcomes relating to knowledge and understanding, which can lead to tangible data for assessment.

So, there is a wide selection of infinitives or action words available to you, many of which we use over and over again in history, particularly those that occur in the Attainment Target statements of the National Curriculum and the assessment objectives of the G.C.S.E. Here is a table which lists some of the more common ones.

Class Associated Action words

3. Content Details

The word ‘content’ is used here to mean the material, which is being taught. This could be historical information as in:

‘The main phases of the French Revolution’ (see Bank C/A/1).

It could also mean content, which extends the pupils’ historical understanding as in:

‘How some changes are more important than others’ (C/A/8).

Alternatively, it could be a precise source skill such as:

‘The sufficiency of a source for the study of a topic’ (D/10).

Content in the context of objectives could also describe practical skills to be taught such as drawing a time-line or composing a paragraph within a piece of extended writing.

4. Method of Achievement

This fourth block describes the means by which the objective or outcome is to be achieved, as for example in ‘by creating a time-chart’, ‘by drawing a recruiting poster’, ‘by completing a paragraph using the words provided’, ‘by creating a spider diagram’, ‘by completing a worksheet ‘, ‘by the use of causation cards’. There will be times when the means by which the objective is to be achieved is self-evident, so judgement is required as to how much is written down. Nevertheless it is important to keep thinking, what are the pupils going to do so that I can find out if the objective has been achieved. This emphasises the importance of selecting methods or learning experiences, which are appropriate for the other three parts of the basic model. The following chart shows some of the links between the Key Elements and Methods.

How many objectives?

Given the wide variety of objectives available for selection, it is a fair question to ask, how many objectives or outcomes should be included in one lesson. The answer will depend on the ability range of the class, the length of the lesson and how selective you are going to be about what you want to emphasise. It is possible that a lesson with a less able class could have fewer objectives, but again, with such a class, they could be very precise e.g. to be able to spell correctly the word ‘crusade’ and be able to explain what the word means. As a general principle you would be looking to include about five or six objectives in lesson of about 60 to 70 minutes in length.

These five or six objectives are likely to be a mixture. Often there will be three main categories.

1. Content-based objectives;
2. Objectives, which seek to extend pupils’ historical understanding, either of concepts, including chronology, skills, interpretations or past attitudes and values.
3. Objectives relating to developing pupils’ ability to organise and communicate.

The last two categories are usually linked to the key Elements. Additionally, when you are employing differentiation by task or resource, you may wish to include objectives for individual pupils or groups of pupils within a class.

Note: Objectives you may set yourself regarding your own pedagogic skills or classroom management should be noted separately from the objectives / outcomes selected for the pupils to achieve.

Link to an Objectives / Outcomes Bank.

You may find it helps to reduce the time you spend on lesson planning, if you build up your own reference section or ‘objectives bank’, to which you can refer when you are creating your lesson plans. This is useful because, while the content might change, there will be repetition of those objectives dealing with the Key Elements, study skills and those involving organisation and communication.

The next section includes examples of objectives, which indicate the variety that may be used within your lesson plans. The specific examples of lesson plans later in the booklet usually include all four blocks or components of a precise objective, whereas the examples in the bank are usually of a generic kind, which will need adjustment to the precise details of your lesson.

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