Developmental psychology.pdf

270 Learning and Information Processing
Figure 10.10
Educational Objectives. In one
classification, six levels are specified.
The descriptions are illustrative
(Bloom, 1956).
Evaluation: Judgments are made on
the basis of specified
criteria.
Synthesis: Ideas are rearranged or
combined into a new
perspective.
Analysis: Interrelationships are
identified and
inconsistencies
detected.
Application: Principles are applied in
new situations.
Comprehension: Facts and principles are
restated or interpreted
in another form.
Knowledge: Facts and principles are
recognized and
recalled.
Levels of Objectives Learning objectives can be set at various levels of difficulty,
using a hierarchal order from relatively simple to complex. An objective concerning
Spanish geography might be a knowledge objective, at the bottom of the hierarchy,
requiring only an awareness of certain facts or principles, achieved through programmed
instruction, discovery learning, or some other mode. Knowledge of the basic facts and
principles is necessary for comprehension, application, analysis, and other objectives
above it (Figure 10.10).
At a higher level, an application objective requires the learner to apply certain
facts and principles in a new situation. The learner indicates why certain geographic
areas have become urban and why others have remained rural.
At the highest level, an evaluation objective requires the learner to make original
judgments about certain facts and principles. Which principles should be applied
and what will be the outcome? In the geography problem, this objective might be stated
as follows: to be able to indicate which geographic areas are most appropriate for urban
development or redevelopment, which are least appropriate, and why.
Domains of Objectives Objectives differ in another way, too. Some involve primarily
thinking, such as reciting vocabulary, forming concepts, and learning geographic
features. These are said to fall in the verbal or cognitive domain because they concern
knowing or understanding. Other objectives require responses that are predominantly
muscular, as in drawing a map or drinking successfully from a bota bag. These physical
or psychomotor responses are part of the motor domain.
This verbal-motor distinction is useful in planning but gives a wrong impression,
for many objectives do not fall neatly into one or another category. There is a
mixture of components in almost every instance. Speaking Spanish is primarily a cognitive
activity, but it is based on complex motor responses as well. Locating cities on
a map involves motor behavior, but it is supported by cognitive processes.
Finally, there are objectives in the affective domain, and these concern attitudes,
feelings, and values. This learning, also called emotional learning, can be extremely
important for the performance of both cognitive and psychomotor skills. A
student with a negative attitude toward a certain national group, for example, is unlikely
to study their language, history, and folkways.
Objectives and Levels of Thinking Years of interviews with college undergraduates
have indicated successive changes in their intellectual development. Before, during,
and also after college, students alter their ways of thinking about the world, and these
changes illustrate the value of highly specific objectives, in this case in the cognitive