Guiding Principles In Determining And Formulating

Learning Objectives
1. Begin with the end in mind

“Begin with the end in mind,” says Covey, the author of “Seven Habits of Effective People”. In the context of teaching, this
means that we must begin our lesson with a clearly defined lesson objective. With a clear and specific lesson objective we will
have a sense of direction. With a definite lesson objective in mind, we do not lose sight of what we intend to teach. No amount
of far-fetched question or comment from our students, no amount of unnecessary interruption or disruption can derail our
intended lesson for the day. With a specific objective, our lesson becomes more focused. We do not waste nor kill time for we
are sure of what to teach, how to teach, what materials to use.

2. Share lesson objective with students.

Like a seminar that begins with a statement of purpose, our lesson ought to begin with a statement and clarification of our
lesson objective. Make known to our students our instructional objective and encourage them to make the lesson objective their
own. This lesson objective when shared and possessed by our students will become their personal target. It is against this
personal target that they will evaluate themselves at the end of the lesson. When our students set their own personal targets we
are certain that they will become more self-motivated.

3. Lesson objectives must be in the two or three domain knowledge (cognitive) skill,
(psychomotor) and values (affective).

Our lesson maybe dominantly cognitive, psychomotor or affective. Dominantly cognitive if it is meant primarily for knowledge
acquisition and dominantly psychomotor if it is intended for the acquisition and honing of skills. Lesson objectives in the
affective domain are mainly focused on attitude and value formation. A cognitive or a skill lesson must always include the
affective dimension for wholistic learning.

A lesson objective that dwells on trivia is hardly a motivating force. What if a student is able to identify the parts of a plant?
What has that to do with him/her and his/her life? In other words, a lesson is worthwhile if it gets connected to everyday life,
how the student is and ought to be concerned with it, what difference it makes for a fuller existence.

We will find it very difficult sometimes to determine whether a lesson objective is in the cognitive or psychomotor domain.
When you face the difficulty, don’t let it bother you. If we come to think of it even a dominantly cognitive lesson includes
teaching of skills, say for instance intellectual skills like reasoning aid inferring. Likewise an intended lesson objective in the
psychomotor domain such as “to focus the microscope under low and high — power objectives in 30 seconds” includes the
cognitive element of knowing the parts and functions of each part of the microscope and understanding the “do’s” and the
“dont’s” in focusing a microscope. Furthermore, a lesson objective geared towards the formation of desirable attitudes and
habits has definitely a cognitive base. We may not succeed in effecting change in attitude and behavior in people (affective)
without

explaining what the desired attitudinal and behavioral change is all about and why such change is desired. (cognitive)

Anyway, what is most important according to this principle is that our lesson is wholistic and complete because it dwells on
knowledge and values or on skills and values or on knowledge, skills and values. If we teach only knowledge, this is
incomplete for this may not in any way touch and bring about change in the learner. We may end up with more head
knowledge that is measured in test then completely forgotten after the test. If we teach only skill unaccompanied by values. we
may contribute to the formation of people who will have. all the skills to oppress, to abuse and to take advantage of the
unskilled and the unlearned. So it is necessity that our lesson gets direction trout objectives in the two or three domains with
the affective domain always present.

4. Work on significant and relevant lesson objectives.

With our lesson objective becoming our students’ lesson objective, too, our students Nvkill be self-propelled as we teach. The
level of their self-motivation all the more increases when our lesson objective is relevant to their daily life, hence, significant.
5. Lesson objective must be aligned with the aims of education as embodied in the Philippine
Constitution and other laws and on the vision-mission statements of the educational institution
of which you are a part.

The aims of education as enshrined in our fundamental law of the land, in the Education Act of 1982, the Ten-Year Medium
Term Development Plan must be reflected in the vision-mission statements of educational institutions. In turn, the vision-
mission statements of educational institutions must filter down to the course objectives stated in course syllabi and in lesson
objectives laid down in lesson plans.

This means that the aims and goals of education as provided for in our laws filter down to our lesson objectives. We have
something to do with the attainment of our broad aims of education. We can contribute very much to the realization of our
school’s vision and mission statements because our lesson objectives are based on our school’s vision and mission statements.
Imagine what happens when our lesson objectives are not in any way related to the goals of education and to the vision-mission
statements of the educational institutions where we work.

6. Aim at the development of critical and creative thinking.

This is said more than done. We need not go into a laborious research to be convinced that the development of critical and
creative thinking is wanting in classrooms. Most questions asked whether oral or written are convergent, low-level ques-tions.
With teachers quite used to awarding and praising pupils/students giving the right answers and sometimes branding the pupil or
student who asks questions “pilosopo”, the classroom atmosphere that prevails is not ripe for the development of critical and
creative thinking. If we want to contribute to the development of citizens who are critical and creative thinkers, the type of
citizens needed to make democracy, then we should include in our scope of questions high-level, divergent, or open-ended
questions. It must be good likewise not to frown on students who question a lot — all for the development of critical and
creative thinking. Our teaching strategies and techniques must be such that they serve as catalyst in the development of higher-
order-thinking skills (HOTS) and creative thinking skills.

For this reason the whole brain must be used for balanced learning not just the left for critical thinking but also the right for
creative thinking.

7. For accountability of learning, lesson objectives must be SMART, i.e., Specific Measureable,
Attainable, Result-oriented and Relevant Time-bound and Terminal.

When our lesson objective is SMART it is quite easy to find out at the end of our lesson if we attained our objective or not. It
will also be easier on our part to formulate a test that is valid to measure the attainment of our lesson objective. Moreover, our
lesson becomes more focused for we have a concrete picture of the behavior that our students should be able to demonstrate if
we realized our lesson objective. In short, SMART objectives increase our accountability for the learning of our students. With
SMART objectives we depart from the unsound practice of teaching that is so spread out that in the end we find ourselves
unclear on what test we are going to give to assess learning. With SMART lesson objectives, there is greater match between
instruction and assessment. There is curriculum alignment.

1. One guiding principle related to subject matter content is to observe the following qualities in the selection and organization
of content:

 Validity – This means teaching the content that we ought to teach according to national standards explicit in the Basic
Education-Curriculum; it also means teaching the content in order to realize the goals and objectives of the course as laid
down in the basic education curriculum.

 Significance – What we teach should respond to the needs and interests of the learners, hence meaningful and
significant.

 Balance — Content includes not only facts but also concepts and values. The use of the three-level approach ensures a
balance of cognitive, psychomotor, and affective lesson content. (For a more-detailed discussion of the three-level
approach, refer to Principles and Strategies of Teaching (2003) written by B. Corpuz and G. Salandanan.)
A balanced content is something that is not too easy to bore the above average student, neither not too difficult to turn off the
average. It is something that challenges the student. To observe the principle of balance, no topic must be extensively discussed at
the expense of other topics.

 Self-sufficiency — Content fully covers the essentials. Learning content is not “mile-wide-and-inch-deep”. The essentials
are sufficiently covered and are treated in depth. This is a case of “less is more”.

 Interest – Teacher considers the interest of the learners, their developmental stages and cultural and ethnic background.

 Utility — Will this content be of use to the learners? It is not meant only to be memorized for test and grade purposes.
What is learned has a function even after examinations are over.

 Feasibility — The content is feasible. in the sense that the essential content can be covered in the amount of time
available for instruction. A guaranteed and a viable curriculum is the first in the school-related factors that has the
greatest impact on student achievement. (Marzano, 2003) — It is observed that there is so much content to cover within
the school year, so much so that teachers tend to rush towards the end of the school year, do superficial teaching and
contribute to non-mastery of content. This is probably one reason why the least mastered competen-cies in national
examinations given to pupils and students are those competencies which are found at the end of the Philippine
Elementary/Secondary Learning Competencies (PELC/PSLC).