Performance Centered
A learning objective should state a performance—that is, an observable activity. You can accomplish this kind of statement by including an action verb that specifies a student performance.
To help beginners write learning objectives that describe students’ performances, Figure 2.5 lists further examples of various action verbs. These verbs are organized according to the cognitive dimension of the Anderson et al. revised taxonomy. When verbs such as these are used in statements of learning objectives, the objectives will usually satisfy the second criterion of expressing observable student performance.
A balance is necessary between verbs that are too broad (and thus imply too many non equivalent performances) and those that are too specific (and which are often just ways of marking answers). Consider this learning objective, which is stated too specifically:
Example Poor: The student is able to put an X on the picture of the correct geometric shape (circle, triangle, rectangle, square, or ellipse) when the name of the shape is given.
The main intent of such an objective is to select or identify the correct shape, not just to make Xs. Any response that indicates the student has correctly identified the required shape is acceptable. Thus, the learning objective should be written as:
Example Better: The student is able to identify a picture of a geometric shape (circle, triangle, rectangle, square, or ellipse) when the name of the shape is given.