An Investigation into Teachers’ State of Formulation and Utilization of Instructional Objectives

Abstract

This study was designed to assess Bahir Dar Preparatory School teachers‟ state of formulating and utilizing of instructional objectives. In an attempt to realize this research objective, 54 teachers of Bahir Dar Preparation School were taken as a target population. Out of these, 13 teachers were selected using random sampling technique from the list available in the school. To gather data from the selected teachers, observation and document analysis were used. Each of the 13 teachers was observed two times by the researcher and curriculum expert. Document analysis was also made on the instructional objectives available from the lesson plans secured by the two data collectors. Data obtained from document analysis and observation were analyzed using percentages and one sampled t-test, respectively. The findings indicate that instructional objectives were clear, measurable, and observable. They indicate the content in which the learner operates his/her learned behavior. They are also appropriate to learners‟ potential and are constructed using concrete terminologies. They are achievable (doable) within the available time, and stated in terms of the learner‟s behavior. However, most objectives were formulated from the cognitive domain, mainly from lower order behavioral changes; some from the psychomotor domain but none from the affective domain. On the other hand, the consideration of instructional objectives in case of revising previous lesson contents and asking questions that bring high students‟ performance, the intended learning outcomes and employing appropriate methods, materials, modalities that foster student achievement of the formulated learning outcomes were above the expected value. The performance levels of teachers at communicating the instructional objectives to students and at assessing students‟ attainment of the intended learning outcomes were below the expected value. In light of these findings, there seems to be a need to provid orientations to the teachers on the benefits of communicating lesson objectives at the onset of a session/lesson delivery. In addition, training with emphasis on the ways and means of assessing students‟ attainment of the intended learning outcomes and maintaining a reasonable balance between and among instructional objectives from the three domains and their respective levels seem in order.