ABSTRACT
A well-known curriculum worker began his arguments for behavioral objectives—one of the precursors and usually a basic tenet of “systems management procedures” in education—with some rather interesting comments. The increasing use of systems terminology in education rests on the set of beliefs which when examined is often unrealistic, and socially and politically conservative. In systems analysis in the field of computer design, inputs and outputs are information; in systems procedures in education, they are often children. The Wittgensteinian principle that the meaning of language depends on its use is quite appropriate for analyzing systems language as it is applied in curriculum discourse. A significant part of the framework of systems management is concerned with and is based upon the precise formulation of goals, on a microsystem level usually with the specification of behavioral goals.
