PandA Povenmire & Associates Aviation Safety Consultants Training Design, Evaluation and Instruction

Seven Golden Rules of Instruction

ONE - STATE YOUR OBJECTIVES IN BEHAVIORAL TERMS

 

     This is the first concept, because it is most important.  For decades, instructional managers have been concerned with the objective of instruction.  Every Friday, elementary school teachers were required to submit their next weeks "objectives" to the principal.  The principal was usually satisfied with "Social Studies: Cover Peru." or "Math: Work on division of fractions."  One day a visiting lecturer brought a revolutionary idea to our school.  We should state our objectives in terms of what the student would be able to do rather than what we were going to "cover."  I had a perfectly good idea about what my sixth graders would be able to do after we were finished - move on to the seventh grade.

 

     His idea impressed me.  After his presentation, I asked him to help me try to modify my objectives into behavioral expectations.  It wasn't easy at first.  My old concepts kept getting in the way.  He kept badgering me to tell him exactly what I expected my students to do after studying Peru.  I came up with things like "be able to appreciate the culture of Peru." or "be able to understand the Peruvian people better."  These were not specific enough for him.

 

     "How will you know when they 'appreciate' or 'understand?'  What should a sixth grader be able to do about Peru?"

 

     "Well," I said, "They sure ought to be able to pass the test that I will give on Friday."

 

     "Good!  What kind of questions are you going to ask?"

 

     Now if you have never taught school, you may not know about "Thursday Night Panic"  That is when the teacher realizes that an unwritten test is scheduled tomorrow.  (Why do you think so many questions are direct quotes from the text book?)  Now this fellow wanted me to write the test right now! 

 

     It took some thought.  Eventually I wrote down a list of questions such as:

 

     1.     Name three major cities in Peru including the capital.

     2.     Name three major exports of Peru.

     3.     Name three major imports of Peru.

     4.     Describe the various climatic regions of Peru.

 

     Then this brilliant consultant - whom the school district had paid an exorbitant sum - simply put this phrase at the beginning of each question - "AT THE END OF THE LESSON, THE STUDENT WILL BE ABLE TO:"

 

     All at once it hit me.  It is OK to teach the test if the test evaluates all required aspects of the skill.  I can cut out a lot of filler and concentrate on the important material.  Not only that but I can relax on Thursday night.

 

     In a fit of excitement over the new idea, I started off on Monday morning by reading the objectives for the week to the class.  As I set aside my list and reached for the text book, three students got up out of their seats. 

 

     "Where are you going?" I asked.

 

     "I'm going to get the Atlas." said one; "I'm going to get the encyclopedia." said the second; and the third said "Hey I'm going for the encyclopedia.

 

     In a gesture of submission and approval, I just raised my hands and stepped back.  All I did for the rest of the day was to provide resources, suggest study groupings, and answer questions. 

 

     By Wednesday, after the "Life in Modern Peru" film, the class agreed that they were ready for the test.  Now what?  If I gave the test now, what would we do for the rest of the week?  Perhaps my objectives had been too short-sighted.  Maybe sixth graders should know more about Peru.  After a short period of second guessing, I decided that the objectives had been at least as comprehensive as the text.  I decided to spend the rest of the week on Argentina, and handed out the test.

 

     Neither I nor the students (and certainly not the principal) were ready for the results.  My class usually settled into a normal curve with three or four A's, ten to 15 B's, 20 or so C's, and two or three below that.  The lowest score was 90% with the average at 95%.  What could I do?  I gave them all A's.

 

     "Well of course!" you say.  "You taught them the test."  But when you think about it, that is just what we should be doing.  The only requirement is to be sure that the test covers the entire realm of the desired performance of a well trained person.  In pilot training, it is not enough to make 70% on such a test.  All skill, knowledge and judgment objectives must be met. 

 

     In applying this concept to pilot training, we need to list all the tasks that a pilot needs to be able to do, then figure out how skill at these tasks can be tested.  We must take care not to leave out a critical task.  Higher level skills do not always fit easily into this format, and must be worked out carefully. 

 

     With a little practice we can make up behavioral objectives for any situation.  Before I meet the student I formulate objectives for the flight.  When I meet him, I say "Okay Orville, last time you were having trouble controlling your airspeed on final approach.  By the end of today I want you to be able to keep it between sixty and sixty-five."  Orville knows what I think is important for the flight, and will concentrate on learning it.

 

     Over the past 20 years, behavioral objectives have found great acceptance among education and training professionals.  They have even found favor in some public schools.  Some teacher's colleges may never get the message.

 

     I lived in Alabama while two of my children were growing up.  When we first arrived, education in Alabama ranked forty-ninth.  (Mississippi was fiftieth.)  Shortly afterward, Alabama decided they were not going to promote students to the next grade unless they possessed the required basic skills.  "Criterion Referenced Tests" were developed.  Passing these tests in all subjects was required for admittance into the next grade. 

 

     The first couple years were eye-opening.  One of my son's senior year classmates was a senior for the third time.  There were a lot of disappointed parents, students and especially teachers.  There were also a lot of tall second and third graders.

 

     Now it didn't take "Miss Burnside" long to figure out that "Bubba" was going to be back in her class for a third time if he failed multiplication again.  So she made a special effort to see that Bubba knew all the skills that were tested on the Criterion Referenced Test.  She basically wrote a behavioral objective for each concept tested.

 

     A few years ago I saw that Alabama's school system had moved up to twenty-fifth.  (Mississippi's was still fiftieth.)  There may have been other influences, but I believe that the Criterion Referenced Test and the resultant drive toward behavioral objectives was a major one.

 

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