English Curriculum & Material Development 17

LESSON III
COMPONENT OF CURRRICULUM:
AIMS, GOALS AND OBJECTIVES
Competence Standard
1. Identifying Aims, Goals and Objectives in Language Curriculum Development
Basic Competence
1. Identifying Aims, Goals and Objectives in language teaching
Instructional Objectives
After this course, the students are expected to be able to :
1. Distinguish Aims, Goals and Objectives in language teaching
2. Formulate Aims, Goals and Objectives in language teaching
LESSON III COMPONENT OF CURRICULUM: AIMS GOALS AND OBJECTIVES
Needs analysis refer to the activities involved in gathering information that will
serve as the basis for the developing a curriculum that will meet the learning needs
of particular group of students. The process of needs analysis can generate a
tremendous amount of information that must be sorted and utilized in some way
within the curriculum. One way to use this information is to apply what has been
learned in the need analysis for the formulating of program goals and objectives.

A. Aims
Aims are general statement that provides direction or intent to educational
actions. Aims are usually written in amorphous terms using words like: learn,
know, understand, appreciate and these are not directly measurable. Aims may
serve as organizing principles of educational direction for more than one grade.
Indeed these organizing principles may encompass the continuum of
educational direction for entire programs, subject areas of the district.

B. Goals
There are definitions of the goals, namely:
1. Goals are general statements of the program’s purposes.
2. Goals should usually focus on what the program hopes to accomplish in the
future, and particularly on what the students should be able to do when they
leave the program.
3. Goals can serve as one basis for developing more precise and observable
objectives.
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4. Goals should never be viewed as permanent, that is, they should never
become set in cement.21
The primary reason for this last point is that the needs being addressed
are only perceived needs and such perceptions may change. In fact, actual
changes may occur in both language needs and situation needs if new and
different types of students enter the program. Goals may take many shapes.
They may be language and situation-centered as in the three goals includes in
the statement: “In our program, the students will learn how to fill out forms in
Indonesia, read a menu, and order a meal.”
Goals are broad statements of what the students will be able to do when
they have completed the course. A curriculum will often be organized around
the goals of the program. Thus the goals and syllabuses of a program may be
related. The program fosters acceptance of cultural differences between
countries. The process of defining goals makes the curriculum developers and
participants consider, or reconsider, the program’s purposes with specific
reference to what the students should be able to do when they leave the
program.22

C. Objectives
If curriculum goals are defined as statements of the desirable and
attainable curriculum purposes and based on the perceived language and
situation needs of the participants in a program. Instructional objectives will be
defined here as specific statements that describe the particular knowledge,
behaviors, and / or skill that the learner will be expected to know perform at
the end of a course or program.
Instructional objectives are specific, measurable, short-term, observable
student behaviors to ensure your students to reach your goals.
Consider the following “objectives” that were stated for an upper-level
ESL for academic purposes class at a well-known American University:23
By the end of the course, a student will be able to:
1. Prepare a term paper (including footnotes, bibliography, title pages, and so
forth).
2. Take notes on a lecture.
3. Answer questions following such a talk.
A statement like “a student will be able to prepare a term paper” is far
too general to fit the definition of an objective as I have given it here. The three

21
James Dean Brown, 1995. The Elements of Language Curriculum, 71
22
. Ibid, . 72
23
Ibid., 73-74.
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“objectives” do match the definition I have given for curriculum goals. For
instance, whether the following seem more like curriculum goals or
instructional objectives:
By the end of the course, the student will be able to:
1. Understanding conversational English.
2. Correctly underline sentences that function as examples within 600 word
passages of 11th grade reading level on general science topics three out of four
times.
3. Develop oral language skills that will prepare them to participate in class
discussions, make oral presentations before an audience, and respond to
questions, as well as continue to improve through self-evaluation of speech.
4. Find and write down the library call numbers for 10 books found in the card
catalog when supplied with only the author and title with 90 % accuracy.
In distinguishing between goals and objectives, it is probably easiest to
consider the extremes. Ask yourself if the statement is closer to a very general
goal or to a very specific instructional objective.
At the other extreme on the continuum are very specific instructional
objective. These are easy to spot because they are specific, and they are specific
because they have the three essential characteristics, that is, they include three
components:
1. Performance (what the learner will be able to do)
2. Conditions (important conditions under which the performance is expected
to occur)
3. Criterion (the quality or level of performance that will be considered
acceptable)

According to Bixler, there are three types of objectives. They are Cognitive,
Affective and Psychomotor.
 Cognitive
This includes knowledge or information recall, comprehension or conceptual
understanding, the ability to apply knowledge, the ability to analyze a situation,
the ability to synthesize information from a given situation, and the ability to
evaluate a given situation.
E.g., "Given a description of a planet, the student will be able to identify that
planet, as demonstrated verbally or in writing." or "The student will be able to
evaluate the different theories of the origin of the solar system as demonstrated
by his/her ability to compare and discuss verbally or in writing the strengths
and weaknesses of each theory."
 Affective
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Affective refers to attitudes, appreciations and relationships among others.

E.g., "Given the opportunity to work in a team with several people of different
races, the student will demonstrate an positive increase in attitude towards
non-discrimination of race, as measured by a checklist utilized/completed by
non-team members.”

 Psychomotor
Psychomotor dealt with physical skills.
E.g., "The student will be able to ride a two-wheel bicycle without assistance
and without pause as demonstrated in gym class."24
Objectives should specify four main things:
1. Audience - Who? Who is this aimed at?
2. Behavior - What? What do you expect them to be able to do? Use action
verbs to describe an overt, observable behavior.
3. Condition - How? Under what circumstances will the learning occur?
4. Degree - How much?

Example of well-written objective in affective view

“Given the opportunity to work in a team with several people of different races,
the student will demonstrate an positive increase in attitude towards non-
discrimination of race, as measured by a checklist utilized/completed by non-team
members.”
o Audience : the students
o Behavior: will demonstrate an positive increase in attitude towards non-
discrimination of race
o Condition: Given the opportunity to work in a team with several people of
different races
o Degree : as measured by a checklist utilized/completed by non-team
members

Example of well-written objective in cognitive view

“Given examples and non-examples of constructivist activities in a college
classroom, the student will be able to accurately identify the constructivist
examples and explain why each example is or isn't a constructivist activity in 20
words or less.”
o Audience : the student

24
Bixler, B. Writing Instructional Goal and Objective (Online) . (http://www.personal.
psu.edu/bxb11/ Objectives/, retrieved in June, 12, 2012.)
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o Behavior : will be able to accurately identify the constructivist examples and

explain why each example is or isn't a constructivist activity
o Condition: Given examples and non-examples of constructivist activities in a
college classroom
o Degree: in 20 words or less

Example of well-written objective in psychomotor view

Given a standard balance beam raised to a standard height, the student will be
able to walk the entire length of the balance beam (from one end to the other)
steadily, without falling off, and within a six second time span.”
o Audience : the student
o Behavior : will be able to walk the entire length of the balance beam (from
one end to the other)
o Condition: Given a standard balance beam raised to a standard height
o Degree: without falling off, and within a six second time span

D. The Importance of Goals and Objectives

Goals and objectives are very important because they do the following:25
1. Help direct the choice of curricular contents and the assignment of relative
priorities to various components of curriculum.
2. Suggest what learning methods will be most effective.
3. Enable evaluation of learners and the curriculum. Thus, permitting
demonstration of the effectiveness of curriculum.
4. Suggest what evaluation methods are appropriate.
5. Clearly communicate to other such as learners, faculty, program directors,
department chairs, and individual from other institution.
Goals and objectives create the foundation for lesson plans. If they are
written well, an instructor will have an effective and meaningful structure for
discussion, activities, and assessment. Goals and objectives serve as a reminder
that teaching is not an end in itself, but the means to an end.
Goals explain the reasoning behind what you will teach in a session.
They articulate what you wish to accomplish and help to map your direction.
They address the question: What do I want my students to take with them after
the session is completed? Once you've organized your goals, you can decide
what content and teaching method will best achieve them.

25
(Online) (http//www.sil.org./componentofcurriculum/ retrieved in September, 30, 2011)
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Goals state what a student should be able to do at the end of the library
session; they do not describe the learning process.
Goals for one session are often related to goals for the entire course. It
can be helpful to look at the overall course goals and those of other library
instructors. Goals should be clear and reachable. Concentrate on naming the
most important broad concepts.
Objectives are student performances of the concepts described in your
session goals. They are often referred to as 'learning outcomes' because they
define more specifically what skills students will be able to demonstrate after
your session. They can be used to assess the effectiveness of the session.
Objectives should always focus on the students, not the instructor.
Objectives should address outcomes, not learning processes. Each objective
should focus on only one idea. Objectives should measure specific behaviors.
Try to avoid using vague verbs such as 'understands' and 'knows.'
Not having clearly defined objectives may result in:
1. Misunderstandings and bad feelings from collaborating organizations whose
outcomes were left out of the survey
2. Poor direction to those who are commissioned to do a survey, potentially
producing survey results which do not answer the questions which the
sponsoring organization needs answered
3. A poor questionnaire which does not gather the data required to measure
one or more important indicators or outcomes
4. Lack of appropriate supplies and equipment
5. Undirected and unfocused data analysis and wasted time