The Importance of Learning Objectives

Introduction In either objectives model or process models of curriculum design, the learning objectives are central to all lesson plans which teachers either develop themselves or adapt from those written by others. That said, objectives that are used in education, whether they are called learning objectives, behavioral objectives, instructional objectives, or performance objectives are terms that refer to descriptions of observable student behavior or performance that are used to make judgments about learning, would certainly be the ultimate aim of all teaching (Kizlik, 2010). According to Kizlik (2010) learning objectives are about curriculum, not instruction. Properly constructed learning objectives are about the evidence of learning they specify what behavior a student must demonstrate or perform in order for a teacher to infer that learning took place. Since learning cannot be seen directly, teachers must make inferences about learning from evidence they can see and measure. Learning objectives, if constructed properly, provide an ideal vehicle for making those inferences. Designing curriculum should take into consideration people from all walks of life to enable dissemination of knowledge and the subject matter covered every aspects of it. When language learning objectives are being stated specifically in a particular lesson, it is the obligation of the teacher to attain those objectives as to ensure learning has taken place. In other words, ensuring the lesson is successful. However, Ornstein and Hunkins (2009) mentioned that there were educators such as the postmodernists, who rejects this provision by claiming that this type of objective discourages students from expanding their horizons by encouraging them

to confine their learning to specified objectives. They advocated that leaning outcomes should be evaluated by teachers judgment after the process of teaching and learning because not all curriculum instructions are likely to be measured. Some proposed that teachers have no rights to demand students on what are the skills they must acquire or how they should behave, to them learning is not about performance level but inquiry (Ornstein and Hunkins, 2009).

Related literature To provide a comprehensive understanding of this topic, it is necessary to lay out some historical perspectives on some of the curriculum development models/approaches and the learning objectives underpinning it.

Bobbitts Contribution First of all, Franklin Bobbitt was among those who addressed the concept of object mode. As early as 1918, Bobbitt addressed the concept of developing curriculum based on objective (Flinders and Thornton, 2004). He believed that a human's life was the implementation of every specific activity and therefore every educational objective should be derived from this activity analysis (Ornstein and Hunkins, 2009). For instance, when we go to the supermarket, the things we need to buy are already in our minds, we know what we want. In addition, if the object of education is to prepare individuals for their future careers, then the specific activities and curriculum plan should help develop skills and knowledge that will enable students to successfully enter the job market.

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Bobbitt applied an activity analysis method to divide human beings life under ten activities1924): 1. Language activity. 2. Health activity. 3. National activity. 4. Social activity. 5. Mental health activity. 6. Leisure activity. 7. Religious activity. 8. Relatives activity. 9. Occupational activity. 10. Non-occupational practical activity.

Charters Contribution Expanding on Bobbitt ideas, Werret Wallace Charters expanded his view by advocating that change in the curriculum are always preceded by modifications in our conception of the education aim (Pinar et al., 1995). He wanted teachers to relate aims with activities that

individuals performed. He proposed that curriculum encompasses of primary subjects and derived subjects; primary subjects were required for a particular job. For example, a reporter has to write a report based on an event, therefore report writing is a primary subject for all students to experience in the English language class. Yet at the same time, a political journalist requires knowledge on history, which is the derived subject. Charters advocated job analysis method to establish educational objectives.

His model has four main steps: i-selecting objectives, ii-dividing them into ideals and activities, iii-analyzing them to the limits of working units meaning that these activities need to be analyzed carefully, and iv-collecting methods of achievement is to develop job units based on those analyzed activities. Charters suggested the curriculum be fashioned in the direction of the objective of education (Pinar et al., 1995).

Tylers Contribution About a quarter century after Bobbitts and Charters work, Tyler published a book titled Basic Theory of Basic Principles of Curriculum & Instruction in 1949. In it he defined school as an institution that provides students with objectives, and education as an activity that includes contemplation. Tylers original curriculum design model of 1949 is often referred to as a Linear Objectives (Brady, 1995) . Tylers model is linear in that learning objectives are specified first followed by explication of certain curriculum elements in the order shown. Method implies both teaching and learning methods and Evaluation includes both assessment of learning and lesson evaluation. In his book, Tyler pointed out four questions to use as the basic theory of curriculum design and teaching (Tyler, 1949): 1. What is the object of education? 2. What teaching experience that we have to provide in order to achieve educational object? 3. How to effectively organize the educational experience? 4. How can we know whether these objects have achieved?

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Based upon those four questions, we can simplify Tylers advocated model as a straight line of curriculum developing model:

Stating objectives

Selecting learning experiences

Organising learning experiences

Evaluation

Figure 1. Tylers Straight Line Model

Apparently, Tylers model is based on the objective-oriented theory. This model takes curriculum as a means of aiming toward an educational objective. Therefore, this model is also called meansobjective model. Students develop behaviour through the target of teaching. Even though Tylers straight line model has been developed explicitly, it has several criticisms (Huang & Yang, 2004). In terms of evaluation stage, this model does not have a feedback mechanism to tell people how to correct it. Also, the objective under Tylers straight line model has a behavioral orientation. Behavioral objectives have many advantages if applied to curriculum design, but they have some limitations on execution. For example, they do not apply to all subjects.

Magers Contribution Robert F. Mager, a leading advocate of behavioural objectives, argued: an objective is a description of a performance you want learners to be able to exhibit before you consider them competent. An objective describes an intended result of instruction, rather than the process of instruction itself (Pinar et al., 1995). The Mager model recommended that objectives should be specific and measurable.

Mager specified the three parts of an objective as follows: i- it should have a measurable verb (an action verb), ii- it should include a specification of what the learner is given, iii- it should contain a specification of criteria for success or competency. For example, a student, when presented with a composition, will identify 10 adjectives words, within 15 minutes, with 80 percent accuracy.

Wheelers Contribution Wheeler continued the work by developing a spherical objective model (1967). In 1967, Wheeler further modified Tylers straight line model as spherical model (Huang & Yang, 2004). This he did because Tylers model did not provide for feedback or help students achieve the evaluative outcome or expected objective. Wheelers circular model has five procedures (Huang & Yang, 2004): Selecting an objective, choosing learning experience, choosing content, organizing and integrating learning experience and content, and evaluating.

1. Objective experience

2. Choosing learning 3. Choosing content

5. Evaluating

4. Organizing and integrating learning experience and content

Figure 2. Wheelers Spherical Model

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As shown in the figure above, Wheelers spherical model seems much more progressive than Tylers straight line model since it has two advantages. First this model has a feedback mechanism, so it provides students with ways to measure their progress or accuracy. It also sets the school objective as a final step in as well as the first. Thus the curricular model remarks educators to refer to their objectives in their evaluative stage. In detail, Wheelers model divides into many details as middle objectives. The aggregation of middle objectives comprises the final objective. Middle objectives can further lead to the near future objective which can be achieved within short period. Eventually, based upon near-future objectives, it also leads to the concrete objective. This model clearly calls for the setting up of objectives. Even though Wheelers spherical objective model progressed beyond Tylers straight line model, this model also has received some criticisms. The objective under the Wheeler model includes behavioral characteristics. Furthermore, this model seems to lack a procedure between organizing and integrating learning experience content and evaluation.

Kerrs Contribution Kerrs model contains four elements: objective, knowledge, school learning experience, and evaluation in 1968. To Kerr, a curriculum development design should first focus on the objective to be reached. He saw this objective as meaning the students expected behavioral changing after learning; these changes included perception, affection, and skills. Similarly, knowledge, the meaning of knowledge is to choose and organize curriculum content so as to achieve schools object.

According to Kerrs model, the three elements needed to establish curriculum knowledge are unity, repetition, and order. In this context, unity means to establish a connection with the field of knowledge. Repetition means the repeating of certain curriculum elements while order means every continuous experience must be established on prior experience. Combined these three elements become the leading principle for organizing effective curriculum. The third element in Kerrs model, learning experience, means the interactive effect between the learners and various environmental elements. It includes social opportunities from the schools arrangement, the influence of the school communitys character, and relationships between teachers and students. Evaluation as the final element represents making sure to what degree the objective has been achieved. The standard of evaluation contains objective feasibility, content and methods suitability, students needs and achievement, as well as the efficiency of teachers preparation. Many standard evaluations just need to be modified a little bit for use in collecting information. In addition to objective examinations and paper commentary for evaluation, Kerr includes attitudinal scale, interview, aptitude test, multiple evaluations, investigated skills and group observations as ways to measure progress.

Tabas Contribution Many of Tabas ideas on curriculum design can be considered as a further elaboration of Ralph Tylers rather psychological principles of curriculum development: attributing to them a more pedagogical and practical nature. This is well evidenced by reconsidering the meaning and nature of Tylers (1969) rationale of curriculum design: (1) stating educational objectives; (2) selecting and (3) organizing learning experiences; and (4) assessing the achievement of

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objectives. In her version, Taba introduced notions of multiple educational objectives and four distinct categories of objectives (basic knowledge, thinking skills, attitudes and academic skills). This approach allowed Taba to relate specific teaching/learning strategies to each category of objectives (Krull, 2003). In addition to the work of Tyler, Wheeler, and Kerr in curriculum development, in 1962, Taba added by pointing out seven steps of curriculum design and development. Taba believed that teachers should be involved in designing the curriculum. She called it the grassroot approach. Taba felt that a curriculum should be designed by its users (Ornstein and Hunkins, 2009). Those seven steps are i- diagnosing of needs, ii- drafting objective, iii- choosing content, iv- organizing content, v- choosing learning activities, vi- organizing learning activities, and viideciding the target and means of evaluation.

Critics on learning objectives The idea of planning a curriculum with objectives has been prominent since the time of Franklin Bobbitt in American education. Indeed, Educational Psychology defines learning as demonstrable changes in human behaviour and many scholars have championed the use of behavioural objectives as performance targets as evidence for learning (Gronlund, 1970; Mager, 1962; Popham, 1968; Popham and Baker, 1970). Benjamin Bloom suggested objectives to be explicit formulations of ways in which students are expected to be changed by the educative process (Bloom, 1956). The critics on learning objective have been extensively discussed elsewhere (McKernan, 2008; Stenhouse, 1975) that it is more suitable for training than for education. In education, resulted in increased knowledge, belief systems, an introduction or induction into the knowledge

of the culture and the capacity to construct new ideas and allow the imagination work. McKernan (2010) advocated education is constructivist one can make new meaning with it and therefore has a cognitive dimension. McKernan (2010) has laid out thirteen comprehensive critics on learning objectives; 1. Objectives do not exist in reality A crucial understanding is that we do not have objectives at all. They are conceptions, not objects like textbooks or blackboards. The thing is they are not real we choose to conceptualise our goals as objectives or we choose not to, (Stenhouse, 1975). 2. Educators are asked to accept objectives uncritically Objectives are usually formulated at state or central government level and handed down to local education authorities as part of a plan for implementing the curriculum, or what is sometimes referred to as the standard course of study. 3. Objectives reduce education to an instrumental-utilitarian activity: taking a means to an end Since the time of Frankin Bobbitt (1918; 1924) the idea of planning by objectives has been popular reaching a sort of zenith in the work of Ralph Tyler (1949) with his behavioural objectives model that is seen as a teacher taking a means to a specified end. The idea behind this model is seen as changing the behaviour of the student therefore any statement of purpose (objectives) is seen as changes taking place in the behaviour of students (Tyler, 1949:44). The most useful way of doing this is to select learning experiences and guiding teaching to achieve the objectives. If we are always aiming at pre-specified ends then we can never grow. The improvement of education does not rest upon the clarification of ends but in criticising our practice. 4. Breaking education down into targets is destructive of the epistemology of disciplines/subjects What educators should aim at is getting students to seek the knowledge that none yet possesses, rather than mastering fields already known. 5. Objectives are often stated as low-level trivial recall items Stating outcomes in terms of simple recall is easily formulated and mastered. Most objectives test items fall into this knowing that category as opposed to more complex synthesis or evaluative items. At a superficial level, the objectives model supports a relationship of banking education by which teachers alert students to important facts and use test situations so that students may recall these facts, demonstrating mastery. 6. Predetermination prevents teachable moments and pursuing inquiries thrown up by the teaching/learning process

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Pre-specification prevents an educator from taking advantage of instructional opportunities that unexpectedly and naturally arise in the classroom when active minds are at work. 7. It is not democratic to set targets in advance of instruction To set objectives in advance of instruction or education is not democratic in that this act fences in the work setting boundaries to inquiry, content and discussion. 8. Objectives often set the agenda for hegemonic group interests to be served It is the duty of educators to unearth these politically motivated policies and to expose these publicly so that all students receive a fair and equitable curriculum with equal opportunities. 9. Objectives represent poor models of teacher-student interaction The use and formulation of objectives by others requests students to arrive at destinations pre-determined by these others and not through the students inquiries. 10. Empirically speaking, teachers do not plan by starting the curriculum with objectives My point here is that after 35 years of curriculum development work with groups of teachers in workshop settings I have learned that teachers do not start by identifying objectives when planning lessons and units of work. Educators begin rather with the content they must teach and the methods for teaching that content. 11. The limits of discourse act as a constraint on objectives Elliot Eisner (2002) suggests that discourse itself has limits which prevent one from adequately describing intentions in clear language. For example, can one describe the taste of water or the trait of sensitivity? How does one attempt to articulate in words what one knows non-linguistically? That is, we do not often have an adequate language to disclose the special character of our work in education and are thus prisoners due to this linguistic constraint. 12. Objectives are often perceived as having equal value when in fact some are of greater importance and of varying classificational significance Some intentions or objectives are simply of a different variety (education vs. training) and some outcomes more valuable and important than other outcomes. 13. Unanticipated outcomes are always being achieved and sometimes they are the most valuable results Stenhouse (1975) argued that unanticipated outcomes are always being achieved and those are the most valuable ones. As cited in Peel (2005), Myers (1988) details some of the most telling critiques of behaviourism that initially originated from its pure positivist reductionism. For Myers, behaviourism reduces all

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behaviour to the level of a correlation between an external stimulus and an internal response. Myers argues that this belief is faulted for ignoring the importance of cognitive psychological processes, which focuses on internal process such as perception and learning from reflection, which have a major part to play in facilitating an understanding learning.

The English language syllabus Since the year 2000 we have been using The KBSM English Language Secondary School Syllabus. It can be referred to as a notional-functional syllabus, has its theoretical base in the communicative approach. Its intent is to equip students with communicational ability and a competency to perform language functions, using correct language forms and structures (Ratnawati, 1996). While the "Communicational Syllabus" did not explicitly mention any grammatical items to be highlighted, the KBSM English Language Syllabus lists an inventory of grammatical items, vocabulary, punctuation, and aspects of the sound system that the teacher may highlight should the topic being covered lend itself to it. Unlike a grammar-based syllabus, which arranges syllabus content according to grammatical items, the KBSM English Language Syllabus is arranged according to themes which are drawn from familiar contexts; for example, the contexts of the home and school, the community, and so on. These themes provide the context through which the language skills and language content are to be taught in an integrated manner. Furthermore, the English KBSM already encompasses objectives from the National Education Philosophy, the aims and objectives of the National Education Policy and the theories and best practice of second language acquisition.

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The Standard of English language Of late, the declining standard of English has taken its toll, in other words its plunge is so rapid apart from all the measures taken by Ministry of Education to uphold the standard of English in Malaysia until our current Minister of education, Tan Sri Muhyiddin Yassin has suggested to make it compulsory to pass English before getting a secondary school certificate (The Straits Times, 2009). Professor Datok Dr Khoo Kay Khim said that poor English standards may affect Malaysias international competitiveness, saying that multinational companies may struggle to find graduates with good English (The New York Times, 2009). Another fundamental reason for deterioration is the lack of exposure to English and usage of the language beyond the classroom (Fairus, 2003). In addition, students in schools generally find it difficult to maintain their interest in English Language learning as English is not seen as important for their immediate needs other than to pass their examination. Teachers on their part are unable to sustain students' genuine interest in continuing to learn English and to use the language once the examination is over (Hussein, 2002). Teachers need to be made aware of the learning objectives in the syllabus as to help students master the English language. By being aware of the learning objectives, teachers themselves know and have a certain goal to achieve in every lesson. It is entirely too easy for a teacher to enter the classroom and exit without fulfilling any objectives at all. Even though not all objectives are achieved at least certain parts should be addressed. The Curriculum Development Centre has set the learning objectives into stages where basic knowledge precedes more advance knowledge. This will help learners to grasp knowledge of English language better.

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Conclusion Learning objectives should benefit and serve good purpose for curriculum designers to have better understandings of the present perceptive and relevant insightful arguments as to what "works" with regard to the teaching of English and what doesn't. The issues that have been raised need to be looked into, and should be regarded as feedback regarding the syllabus. Teachers need to familiarise themselves with the learning objectives in order for better teaching and learning. By having a set goal in mind, teachers would know what to teach, how to teach and when to teach a certain lesson. We are aware of the importance of English in this global and changing world so it is vital for the students to master the language in order to compete well and thus the learning objectives set out should meet these challenges. The educational objectives of the globalized world require that curriculum designers consider the globe a whole system in their curriculum design to cultivate students globalization awareness by means of overcoming the limitations of effective language teaching. English curriculum design and teaching should aim to enable students to acquire the necessary knowledge and develop their comprehensive qualities, including attitudes and skills for the daily life of a responsible citizen in this multicultural and interdependent world (Wu, 2006). As classroom practitioners, it is imperative that we know how the curriculum is implemented. Curriculum implementation entails putting into practice the officially prescribed courses of study, syllabuses and subjects. The process involves helping the learner acquire knowledge or experience. It is important to note that curriculum implementation cannot take place without the learner. The learner is therefore the central figure in the curriculum implementation process. Implementation takes place as the learner acquires the planned or

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intended experiences, knowledge, skills, ideas and attitudes that are aimed at enabling the same learner to function effectively in a society.

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