Behavioral Objectives

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A behavioral objective consists of a written statement of what a learner will be able to do following instruction. As Dr. Julie S. Vargas (1972) noted, a behavioral objective (a) describes behavior, (b) refers to observable behavior, (c) implies learning experiences, (d) can be communicated to a learner, and (e) indicates a method of measurement.

Sources

The primary source materials for writing behavioral objectives are Mager (1975) and Vargas (1972). In addition, books on instructional design by Briggs & Wager (1981) and by Dick & Carey (1990) contain relevant and useful chapters on writing objectives.

In Terms of the Student

As noted on the Instructional Design page, one writes objectives in terms of the student.  Objectives refer to student behavior, not to the behavior of the teacher.  When designing instruction, one should always keep this reference in mind. When communicating about instructional design to others, such as clients, it is important to tell them, and remind them as needed, that objectives refer to student behavior.

Each and every objective one writes could begin, if needed, with the phrase "After instruction the learner will be able to...." That phrase may prove redundant for your own use, however.  Moreover, once others or clients understand (are able to say in their own words) that objectives are in terms of a student, for brevity sake you may drop the phrase. Dropping it will shorten the lengths of the objectives.  However, you may still wish to put the phrase at least once on an objectives page or form, just as a reminder, and just in case someone who does not fully understand objectives needs to read or review the list of them.

Parts of An Objective

The matter of reference aside, objectives contain three main parts.  These include (1) the "givens," (2) the pinpointed learning channel active verbs, and (3) the direct objects.  Each objective will have one or more "givens," one and only one learning channel, and one direct object.

Givens

The word "givens" refers to what one gives to a student in order that the behavior both occur and for it to be able to occur.  The word "givens," therefore, refers to the conditions, events, and objects that precede an action and are presented to a learner.  When writing an objective, we use the word "given" to announce the conditions, events, and objects to be presented to a learner before the behavior.

A given can mean a direction.  Directions can be said orally by an instructor, be written out, or be printed.  Printed directions include those on a computer screen. Printed directions also include those printed at the top of a test page, a worksheet, or a practice sheet. A direction tells the learner what to do, and when to begin.  It may describe how to do a behavior.

A given can also mean a verbal stimulus, cue, or prompt of some kind.  A verbal stimulus can be audio (spoken by an instructor), or visual (printed or written text).  A verbal stimulus can be a single letter, a symbol, an abbreviation, an acronym, a single word, a single phrase, a single phrase minus one or more words, several words not comprising a phrase, a list of words, a complete sentence, a complete sentence minus one or more words, a single paragraph, a single paragraph minus one or more words, or a longer passage of text.  Verbal stimuli also include numerals, sign-language signs, gestures, diagrams, flowcharts, and drawings.

A given can also refer to nonverbal stimuli.  A nonverbal stimulus may be an actual, tangible object of some kind. A nonverbal stimulus can be a holograph, photograph, painting, or computer graphic, animation, or video segment.  (If an animation or video contains voice overlay, then the stimulus condition could be a combination of both verbal and nonverbal stimuli.)  A nonverbal stimulus could also be a sound.  If the given is a tangible object, it might be simply shown to a student, or it could be handed to the student -- a literal usage of the word 'given' in this case!

A given may, as noted, in some cases consist of both verbal and nonverbal stimuli.  Also, more than one condition, event, or object may be presented by an instructor at the same time.  For instance, the given might include both a direction and a particular verbal stimulus.

Learning Channel Active Verb

As noted on both the Learning Channels Matrix page, the active verb portion of a behavioral objective actually consists of two verbs.  A channel has two parts, an input and an output.  The first verb identifies the input.  The second verb describes the output.  In some cases, as Lindsley (1994) described, we may want to use three or more verbs to completely describe a channel.  However, for most purposes you should be able to write a decent objective using the two verb combinations.

The channel inputs include seeing, hearing, touching, sniffing, tasting, feeling, thinking, and "freeing."  The first five of these inputs refer to our five basic senses.  Most of the time, most academic pinpoints will have visual stimuli (words, pictures, displays of objects, etc.).  Therefore, most pinpoints will have "see-" as the input verb.  The second most common input will consist of audio stimuli, and these will have "hear-" as the input verb.  The other inputs will arise as needed.

Some inputs may prove difficult for an instructor or instructional system to arrange.  These include the feeling and thinking channels. The feeling inputs refer to emotional states.  The thinking input refers to low amplitude verbal behavior, i.e., subvocal speech.  Generally speaking, only the learner will be reliably in contact with his or her emotions and thoughts, so for most instructional design purposes one might want to steer clear of these inputs.

The "free-" input represents a special case.  Basically, it means no specific input at all!  The word "free" refers to free operant behavior.  That means behavior free from restraint, and free to go at whatever frequency possible, feasible, or desireable. In otherwords, aside from maybe giving a student an instruction, with "free" channels there is no one stimulus preceding each and every response as there is with the other channels.

For instance, in a lesson on teaching the names of the capital cities of nations, an instructor or program could present a name of a country, and the learner could then state the name of that country.  That would not be an example of free operant behavior, since the behavior of stating names of cities would be constrained to the rate of presentation. On the other hand, if the lesson contained simply a direction to name as many capital cities as one could in one minute, the behavior of naming capitals would be a "free state" of some sort.  It would either be a free-say, a free-write, a free-type, a free-print, and so on.  In such a case there would be no stimulus for saying any particular name.

On an objectives form, after writing the givens, write the appropriate learning channel verb.

Direct object 

The final necessary part of all objectives consists of the direct object -- what the verb acts upon.  In the preceding example, the direct object was the name of a capital city.  In that example, a full objective would run,

"Given the name of a country, see-say its capital."

Another, different objective, would run,

"Given the name of a country, hear-say its capital."

In the former, a visual textual stimulus is presented.  And in the latter, an audio stimulus is presented. In both cases the learner says a response.  And in both cases the thing to be said is the name of the capital.

As behavior analysts have contended, and documented to some extent, being able to do a behavior in one channel does not imply being able to do a similar behavior in another channel.  Channels tend to be specific and independent.  That a person can hear-say city names does not imply that a person will necessarily be able to see-say them, hear-write them, see-write them, see-point to them, and so forth.

Stating Useful Objectives

(This portion is under development.)

Examples of Objectives

(This portion is under development.)

Nonexamples of Objectives

(This portion is under development.)

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