ABSTRACT
During the past six or eight years an increased amount of attention has been given to the statement of educational objectives in behavioural terms both to facilitate the evaluation of educational programs and to improve the validity of the measures and scales utilized in the evaluation process (Metfessel and Michael, 1967; Michael and Metfessel, 1967). Although set up as a programmed learning text, Mager’s (1962) Preparing Instructional Objectives has been one of the most useful guides to teachers and specialists in curriculum who have sought help in stating the desired outcomes of instruction in behavioural language – in describing the kinds of specific and relatively terminal behaviours which the learner will be capable of exhibiting subsequent to his exposure to a program of instruction. Another useful source has been the volume edited by Lindvall (1964) who, in collaboration with Nardozza and Felton (Lindvall, Nardozza and Felton, 1964), not only prepared his own chapter concerned with the importance of specific objectives in curricular development, but also enlisted the aid of several distinguished educators, e.g. Krathwohl (1964) and Tyler (1964), with specialized interests in evaluation. Such efforts have essentially involved a fusion of curriculum design with the evaluation process in that curricular planning is described in terms of behavioural objectives that are necessary for the construction of valid tests and scales. The taxonomies provide the required model necessary to furnish meaningful evidence regarding the attainment of desired behavioural changes.
