Session 2: June 27, 2009

A discussion focused on the the formulation of educational objectives.

• The teacher must have the capacity formulate both the general and specific objectives. Reviewing the principles given by Gronlund and Mager should be a big help.
  
• A strong 'thinking capacity' on the teacher is an important tool in the formulation of objectives. Getting familiar with the dynamics of the human brain may help us here. (A handout on how the human brain works is given for each student to photocopy and read - taken from the 'Accelerated Learning for the 21st century')
• Educational Objectives should take the learner as a person with a cognitive life, an affective life, and psychomotor skills to develop. This makes the taxonomy of objectives of Benjamin Bloom an important aspect in the objective formulation.
• It good to note that at the cognitive domain Benjamin Bloom talks about the higher-order thinking skills. Introducing the students to this level of thinking is a way of helping them develop to the fullest their own mental capacities.
• A three-level document is introduced to the students. This is an expected output required of them at the end of the course: The curriculum plan; the syllabus; and the lesson plan. In the next meeting the students should be given the assigned topics or courses for them to start planning for their expected outputs.