Gateway Engineering Education Coalition Educational Objectives Quantifying Learning

Gateway Engineering Education Coalition2 Educational Objectives Motivation Components Authorities Taxonomies in detail How to Examples

Gateway Engineering Education Coalition3 Why Write Educational Objectives for Your Course? To tell students what they will be expected to learn To ensure that students learn on a number of cognitive levels To quantify assessment by creating measurable objectives

Gateway Engineering Education Coalition4 Components of an Educational Objective * The task that the student is to do (i.e., the behavior) The conditions under which the behavior is to be displayed The level of achievement expected * Teaching Engineering, Wankat and Oreovicz

Gateway Engineering Education Coalition5 Who has published information about writing objectives? Bloom Cognitive Domain – 6 levels Krathwohl Affective Domain – 4 levels Kibler Psychomotor Domain – 4 levels Plants, Sears and Dean Problem Solving Taxonomy – 5 levels

Gateway Engineering Education Coalition6 Bloom’s Taxonomy: Cognitive Domain Knowledge Comprehension Application Analysis Synthesis Evaluation

Gateway Engineering Education Coalition7 Bloom’s Taxonomy: Cognitive Domain Knowledge – Repeating from memory Comprehension – Demonstrating understanding of terms and concepts Applications – Applying learned information to solve a problem

Gateway Engineering Education Coalition8 Bloom’s Taxonomy: Cognitive Domain Analysis – Breaking things down into their elements, formulating theoretical explanations or mathematical or logical models for observed phenomena Synthesis – Creating something, combining elements in novel ways Evaluation – Choosing from alternatives and justifying the choice using specified criteria

Gateway Engineering Education Coalition9 Bloom’s Taxonomy: Cognitive Domain Descriptive Verbs: Knowledge – list, identify, summarize Comprehension – explain, describe, interpret Application – apply, calculate, solve Analysis – derive, explain, classify Synthesis – formulate, design, create Evaluation – determine, optimize, select

Gateway Engineering Education Coalition10 Krathwohl’s Taxonomy: Affective Domain Receiving and attending – willing to receive or reject new information Responding – willing to respond to information Valuing – decides that information has inherent worth Organization – organizes values into a system Characterization by a value – acts in a way that allows others to see his or her underlying values

Gateway Engineering Education Coalition11 Kibler’s Taxonomy: Psychomotor Domain Gross Body Movements Finely Coordinated Body Movements Non-verbal Communication Behaviors Speech Behaviors

Gateway Engineering Education Coalition12 Plants, Sears, & Dean: Problem Solving Taxonomy Routines – no decisions required Diagnosis – selection of correct routine Strategy – choice of routine and order to apply Interpretation – solve real world problem requiring assumptions and interpretations Generation – development of routines that are new to the user

Gateway Engineering Education Coalition13 Educational Objectives Overall objectives Outside review of objectives Detailed objectives for individual sections Weekly objectives Daily objectives

Gateway Engineering Education Coalition14 Which Taxonomies Could You Use? Depends on your course Bloom’s taxonomy is better known with more examples Bloom’s taxonomy may not allow definition of physical characteristics or behaviors Educational objectives for an engineering course may be a combination of cognitive and psychomotor

Gateway Engineering Education Coalition15 Examples – Bloom’s Taxonomy Knowledge – The student can identify the six orthographic views and oblique and isometric pictorial views Comprehension - Explain in your own words the concept of vapor pressure Application – Given two orthographic views of a 3D object, the student can determine the third through sixth orthographic views and draw the pictorial view

Gateway Engineering Education Coalition16 Examples – Bloom’s Taxonomy Analysis – The student can dimension the orthographic views of an object so that a machinist could produce the object. Synthesis – Formulate a model-based alternative to the PID controller design Evaluation – Determine which of the given heat exchanger configurations is better and explain your reasoning

Gateway Engineering Education Coalition17 Examples – Kibler’s Taxonomy Given a multifaceted block, the student can sketch to scale three orthographic views and a pictorial view of the block Having completed a team design-build project the student can prepare and deliver a clear, oral project presentation

Gateway Engineering Education Coalition18 References Wankat, P. C. and F. S. Oreovicz, Teaching Engineering, New York, McGraw-Hill, Felder, R. M. and R. Brent, “Objectively Speaking”, Chemical Engineering Education, 31(3), (1997). Bloom, B. S., Taxonomy of educational objectives. 1. Cognitive domain. New York, Longman, 1984.