Educational Aims, Objectives, and Other Aspirations
In this episode I unpack Eisner’s (2002) publication titled “Educational aims, objectives, and other aspirations,” which problematizes behavioral education objectives and discuss two alternative approaches.
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If you walk into most classrooms in the
United States you often see a statement
like the students will be able to and
then something after that some kind of
objective like the students will be able
to sit quietly for eight hours straight
without moving or more Progressive
Educators might ask it in the form of a
question like how might the students sit
in their seats quietly without moving
for eight hours while this is something
that is often focused on by
administrators like you'll lose five
points as an educator if you don't have
it stated on the board one might ask
well why do we even actually have those
objectives to begin with OR how might we
reconsider or rethink objectives in
classrooms context today's episode of
the csk8 podcast is going to unpack a
chapter titled educational aims
objectives and other aspirations and
this is by Elliot Eisner and it's going
to question our focus on and use of
objectives in the classroom context in
fact it's actually going to provide
three different ways that you might be
able to reconsider these types of
objectives so the first one is kind of
unpacking what are these behavioral
objects objectives the next one talks
about problem-based objectives and the
third one kind of reframes objectives
into expressive outcomes and if you're
curious to who am I my name is Jared
O'Leary and this is the csk8 podcast I
have a background in all grades
kindergarten through doctoral student in
music education and computer science
education context so I'm going to relate
this chapter into a wide variety of
different contexts alright so the
chapter begins with Eisner talking about
what exactly are objectives so here's a
quote from page 93 quote objectives are
the specific goals that one hopes to
achieve through the educational program
that is provided in order for
educational planning to be meaningful
not only must goals be formulated they
must also be formulated with precision
and with Clarity to formulate then with
precision and Clarity it is best not to
use words that have reference that are
difficult to observe words such as
understanding Insight appreciation and
interest referred to qualities that
cannot be observed directly they require
one to make inferences about their
existence through the observation of
manifest Behavior thus useful objectives
should be stated in behavioral terms or
in more current jargon performance terms
when objectives are stated behaviorally
it is possible to have specific
empirical reference to observe thus one
is in a position to know without
ambiguity whether the behavioral
objectives has been reached an objective
that seeks to help students appreciate
the insights of great poetry needs to be
recast into terms far more specific and
precise what would a student do to
demonstrate that such appreciation has
occurred what Behavior could he or she
display what task is he or she to
perform end quote I don't know about you
but that kind of like reminds me a lot
of the PD sessions that I go to on
Wednesday afternoons and early release
days where they'd kind of talk about
what is an objective you probably
learned this in your 101 course on
education but we're going to teach it to
you again to make sure that you
understand what it is which side note on
that I think is hilarious and districts
treat everybody the same like when I
went back into the previous District
that I was in I just finished my
residency for my PhD education and they
required me to go to the new teacher
orientation for it was supposed to be a
year long and it would teach you stuff
like well what is an objective blah blah
blah and every teacher had to go to it
if you were a new teacher in that
District but fortunately I was teaching
a college class at the exact same time
that this occurred and I had already
committed to that before I had signed on
for the district so I went to the first
and I think the last one and that was
about it I understand why districts have
those kind of courses in place but it
kind of comes across as assuming
teachers come in not knowing what
they're talking about just because it's
your first year in the district doesn't
mean you haven't taught several years
before or have many degrees in that
subject area but tangent over now Eisner
goes on to describe how these objectives
are no longer focused on what the
teacher is going to do but the behavior
of the students what exactly will the
student do not only do you identify the
behavior but you also identify the
content that students are going to
engage with and then finally you need to
include some kind of degree of
Competency that somebody is going to
reach when completing the objective so
here's a quote from page 94 and this is
actually Eisner quoting Robert major or
magger apologies for mispronouncing your
name quote an objective is an intent
communicated by a statement describing a
proposed change in a learner a statement
of what the learner is to be like when
he has successfully completed a learning
experience it is a description of a
pattern of behavior performance we want
the learner to be able to demonstrate as
Dr Paul Whitmore once put it the
statement of objectives of a training
program must denote measurable
attributes observable in The Graduate of
the program or otherwise it is
impossible to determine whether or not
the program is meeting the objectives
when clearly defined goals are lacking
it is impossible to evaluate a course or
program efficiently and there is no
sound basis for selecting appropriate
materials content or instructional
methods after all The Machinist does not
select a tool until he knows what
operation he intends to perform neither
does a composer orchestrate a score
until he knows what effects he wishes to
achieve similarly a builder does not
select his materials or simply a
schedule for construction until he has
his blueprints objectives before him too
often however one hears teachers arguing
the relative merits of textbooks or
other AIDS of the classroom versus the
laboratory without ever specifying just
what goal the aid or method is to assist
in achieving I cannot emphasize too
strongly the point that an instructor
will function in a fog of his own making
until he knows just what he wants the
students to be able to do at the end of
the instruction end quote then actually
went over from page 94 into the very top
of page 95. now that is a really
interesting quote and I have so much to
say and counter with that but I'm gonna
just kind of
keep my mouth shut and we'll let Eisner
do that for me now this study of like
behavioral objectives has roots in the
American educational psychology but
there are two other Traditions
associated with this type of approach
that Eisner discusses one is industry
and the other is military training so
here's how these objectives might be
used in an automobile plant like a
facility that will kind of manufacture
or assemble automobiles so this is from
page 95. quote a prototypical form is
created for the cars to be assembled
this form is described both physically
and mechanically for each model
subsequently a component analysis is
made of the Prototype a task analysis
follows that prescribes the steps to be
taken in production and their sequence
and production Begins the manager of the
assembly line has the task of ensuring
that all operations are performed in the
order specified the goal to be achieved
is the creation of an isomorphic
relationship between the original
prototype and each car coming off the
line if these cars do not match there is
a callback and the problem is identified
and readjustments are made an efficient
and effective assembly line produces
identical cars day after day that in
every aspect match the model that was
originally created end quote now that
might sound fine until you realize this
is talking about children then Eisner
goes on on page 96 to talk about how
this relates to military now here's a
quote from age 96 quote when one has a
training program a program that
intentionally attempts to help another
acquire a known specific performance
system to be used to achieve a known
goal the acquisition of known behavioral
routines might be appropriate personal
Ingenuity and idiosyncratic Behavior are
discouraged both on the assembly line
and in the boot camp the Armed Forces
justify such an approach on the basis
that it is of Paramount importance for
soldiers to learn to follow orders
prediction and control of troops are
required in time of War Industry employs
such an approach because it is efficient
more cars can be produced in better
fashion when systematic routinized
procedures are followed end quote now
when we start thinking of students and
the education system as assembly lines
and students as a product of that
assembly line I find some problems in
that and we're going to kind of talk
about that some more in this chapter in
this podcast episode but Eisner provides
some context and says that a lot of this
shift in thinking had to do with
pressures being put on superintendents
at the time in the early 1900s and how
we adopted a Taylor approach who was
like an industrial management Specialist
or consultant who kind of talked about
time management and efficiency and how
you can optimize your assembly line to
be able to produce more and so this
approach was applied into the
educational system in the early and mid
day I mean I don't know about you but I
had administrators in like one of my
districts who said we cannot afford to
fail to only do the lessons that we know
are going to work do not experiment with
the lessons that you are teaching with
any kind of projects do not experiment
with how you are going to teach it Etc
do not customize it for this students
that you're working with just go with
what is literally verbatim written out
for every single one of the 50 plus
elementary schools across the district
and assume it's going to work for every
single student which surprise surprise
it did not work especially when I went
to one school that was an affluent
school where it was predominantly white
and had a golf course across the street
from it and then I went to another
school that was not predominantly white
worth 95 of the students did not speak
English as their first language surprise
the lessons didn't really work too well
in both those contexts but again the
assembly line approach is everybody's
going to have the same experience and
come out with the same outcomes
regardless of how you come into this
program and what kind of experiences you
bring so assessing prior understanding
kind of doesn't really matter in this
kind of an approach which again is often
used in most classes in North America
that I've witnessed so on page 97 Eisner
quotes a superintendent who's talking
about how this new approach focusing on
time management and whatnot and making
your classroom instructions super
efficient and effective was kind of a
smoke and mirror to kind of help protect
themselves of the criticisms that many
superintendents were receiving quote one
may easily trace an analogy between
these fundamentals of the science of
industrial management and the
organization of a public school system
for example one the state as Employer
must cooperate with the teacher as
employee for the latter does not always
understand the science of Education two
the state provides experts who supervise
a teacher and suggest the processes that
are most efficacious and economical
three the task system obtains in the
school as well as in the shop each grade
being a measured quantity of work to be
accomplished in a given term four every
teacher who accomplishes the task
receives a bonus not in money but in the
form of rating which may have money
value 5. those who are unable to do the
work are eliminated either through the
device of a temporary license or a
temporary employment six the
differential rate is applied to the
teacher quantity and quality of service
being considered in the rating 7. the
result ought to be a maximum output at a
low relative cost since every repeater
costs as much as a new pupil 8. 8 the
teacher thus receives better wages but
only after demonstrated Fitness for high
position 9. hence we ought to have the
most desirable combination of an
educational system relative cheapness of
operation and high salaries end quote
now if you listen to some of the
episodes that talks about like Bordeaux
for example episode 98 re-examining
inequalities in computer science
participation from a bordujian
sociological perspective as well as
intersections of cultural capital with
Kimberly Scott that's episode 124. both
of those kind of talk about how power
and power dynamics can have an impact on
what occurs in the classroom now what's
really interesting is that even though
this is kind of adopts a corporate
mentality is we don't have the ability
like in many corporations to continue to
earn higher wages so for myself I was
capped at a very specific rate based off
of Just My degrees and how many years I
had taught I could receive a small bonus
if the students performed well across
the school because again I taught every
single kid in the school wasn't just
specific class or grade level but in a
corporate context if you're like a
salesperson you can keep receiving more
and more commissions for the better you
perform so it's kind of convenient that
that part of the corporate mentality has
kind of been left out of the educational
system but that's a whole nother topic
that we can discuss on another episode
let's get back to talking about the
problems with objectives here's an
important quote from page 97 from Eisner
quote the society was viewed as the
consumer of the school's products the
children were the raw material to be
processed according to specifications
laid down by the consumer and the
teachers were the workers who were to be
overseen by supervisors all of this was
to take place under a superintendent end
quote now to an untrained person who may
have experienced education that might
sound fine like yeah that makes sense
it's just like an assembly line but
Eisner points out that the way steel
reacts to pressure being applied to it
is going to be very different than the
way a student reacts to pressure being
applied to them this deal you can
usually predict if the machines are a
effectively tuned that is going to
create the same exact outcome but Eisner
points out quote children are far from
inert so are teachers they respond
differently to the same stimuli because
how the stimuli are perceived indeed
whether they are in fact stimulant
depends as much on the characteristics
of the student as it does on the
objective characteristics of the stimuli
themselves end quote that's a really
important quote to kind of unpack so
think about like what you went into if
you are a computer science educator what
made you interested in computer science
and why did you go into this field as
opposed to teaching another one like for
myself I went into music education and
then after several years there I
switched over to Computer Science
Education why did I go into either of
those subject areas as opposed to
culinary arts education what about for
you why did you end up in computer
science education as opposed to Arts
education or language arts it may be
because the stimuli the different
experiences and lessons and projects you
engaged with in one subject area it was
more meaningful than in others even
though everybody might objectively
receive need the same kind of
instruction like if you have a computer
or a video that demonstrates the exact
same concept and you would create the
exact same thing as somebody else you're
going to walk away from it with a
different experience I talk about this
in some other episodes I'll include in
the show notes at jaredolary.com but
there are many different layers of
curriculum so like there's the intended
curriculum that is what is designed by
somebody like a curriculum developer
there is what is taught the taught
curriculum that is how the teacher
teaches that because it's often very
different as a former curriculum
developer and classroom teacher I'm very
aware of that but then there's also what
is embodied or experienced by the
students and then there's like what is
understood there's like the null
curriculum like there's many different
layers of curriculum but what a student
experiences and walks away with and kind
of embodies and takes away from a
particular experience is going to be
completely different than the person
next to them most likely well one
student might walk away from a lesson
and go wow I really like abstraction in
computer science another student might
walk away going wow that was a really
funny looking picture on page four we
don't actually know what students are
going to think and what they're going to
walk away with when it comes to an
educational experience because again
they are not inert objects but the
behavioral objectives kind of treat them
as though they're all going to do the
same thing and so Eisner points out that
quote one major problem I see in the
admonition to teachers and curriculum
planner to specify their AIMS in
behavioral terms is that the limitations
of such objectives are seldom
acknowledged they are offered as though
one more not really professionally
competent without a list of objectives
that one could pull out of for each set
of curriculum activities formulated End
quotes from page 98 a little bit further
down Eisner goes on to clarify look I'm
not saying we shouldn't have educational
aims or objectives but I'm just saying
that quote one should not feel compelled
to abandon educational aims that cannot
be reduced to measurable forms of
predicted performance end quote and that
right there is kind of like the main
Crux of this particular chapter and goes
against what a lot of people discuss
when it comes to education except for
people on this particular podcast
because I like to unpack papers and
interview guests who do talk about
interest-based learning that might not
have anything to do with a very specific
and generalizable learning outcome that
is going to be applied to all students
so I'll include a link in the show notes
to interest driven learning podcast
episodes that I highly recommend
checking out so Elliot goes on to
further eviscerate the behavioral
objectives and says that we often focus
on very simple things that can be
described or observed but that kind of
does not get at the subtleties of what
it means to be a human or to even have
discursive language is quote from page
discourses of language performs rather
well but for the subtleties of human
experiences for our knowledge of human
feeling for modes of conception and
understanding that are qualitative
discourse Falls far short how many words
would it take to describe Insight
perceptivity Integrity self-esteem how
would one describe how water water
tastes how would one describe the
qualities of a late Beethoven quartet in
precise unambiguous measurable terms the
point here is not an effort to inject
the mystical into educational planning
but rather to avoid reductionist
thinking that impoverishes our view of
what is possible to expect all of our
educational aspirations to be either
verbally describable or measurable is to
expect too little end quote the next
problem with some behavioral objectives
is that there's often a judging going on
as to whether or not somebody has
achieved an objective or to what degree
and this could create a problem as well
now we might come up with some
objectives like a student will be able
to write five lines of code or a student
will be able to write a for Loop that
has only four lines of code or a student
will be able to make a Sprite navigate
through a maze using only five blocks I
don't know these are all common
objectives that are used in computer
science education here's some questions
from Eisner on page 99 quote but what
about the rhetorical force of a
student's essay what about the estate
that quality of her painting what about
the cogency of his verbal argument what
about her intellectual style the way she
interprets the evidence in a science
experiment the way in which historical
materials is analyzed are these subject
to standards I think not but to say that
such qualities cannot be measured by
students a little bit further now how
much weight does one give to Insight and
how much The Logical argument how does
one compare this essay or this statement
or this project or this painting to the
one or ones the student did before
judgments about such qualities are not
will of the Wisp Cavalier irresponsible
conclusions they are complex appraisals
that use an extraordinarily wide range
of knowledge to arrive at what unbalance
is a warranted human judgment the
multiple choice test is simply not
adequate for everything end quote
dropping the mic right there it's such
an important thing to consider and now
with like chat GPT and other AI
generation platforms and whatnot being
used to like cheat on tests I'm really
curious what Eisner would say about all
of this but that that's a whole other
topic maybe we'll invite somebody on as
kind of an expert in that but Eisner has
a third critique of Behavioral
objectives and basically says that
there's kind of like a pre-specification
of what students will be able to do and
that kind of thinking is guided
specifically by Western technology and
processes or systems so that may or may
not align with different ontologies or
axiologies so different ways of being or
different values that different students
might have they come from different
cultures but Eisner points out that life
in the classroom is not always linear or
neat and says on page 100 quote many of
our most productive activities take the
form of exploration or play in such
activities the task is not one of
arriving at a performed objective but
rather to act often with a sense of
abandon Wonder curiosity out of such
activity rules may be formed and
objectives may be created end quote now
when I was in the classroom I had it so
that the students could explore and
create whatever projects they wanted so
there are several programming languages
that that students can pick from like
one of them specifically focused on
coding music another one focused on Art
and animation another one allowed them
to make games and stories and another
one uh and it was like great for making
apps and this was a variety of different
types of apps for like iPads iPhones Etc
a student could start on a language or a
project and then they could abandon it
at any point that they wanted to I often
ask them to hey spend maybe a full day
on it or a full week of class work on it
and then if you decide Mac you don't
like it and cool you can switch to
something else how many times have you
as an adult worked on some kind of a
project like oh I'm gonna do this
painting of I don't know my dog and you
get halfway through it and you realize
you're not quite the van Gogh you
thought you were or you're like nah you
know what I'm really interested in this
I'm gonna put this on pause or maybe not
even resume it ever instead I'm gonna do
this other thing that grabs my attention
but in classroom context it's usually
positioned as well once you start
something you have to finish it and when
you start something you have to have the
end goal in mind and that's something
that I didn't really like oftentimes
students who come in my class and be
like I want to make something okay what
do you want to make what are you
interested in and be like well I'm
interested in sports okay well spend
some time thinking about what you're
interested in in sports and maybe what
you want to create so then they start
creating something relating to sports
that they think is of interest to them
but as they're working on it they go oh
you know what I actually like learned
this like little thing that I can do
that's kind of tangentially related to
this I want to head in this other
completely different direction and that
is completely okay that happens to
myself in real life all the time like
yesterday I was working on something for
the consecration that I do and then I
was like oh you know what I don't want
to work on this other thing and then I
shifted course but if I had some kind of
Behavioral objective it would have been
a failure because I did not complete the
thing that I had started but in reality
it was a success because I completed
something else that I needed to get done
but going back to the core idea like
even a layer deeper than just completing
things but the idea of being able to
explore and to play this is something
that we've talked about in interviews
like with Mitch Resnick so many of the
other guests in unpacking scholarship
episodes and especially the rhizomatic
learning podcast cast like the fostering
intersectional identities through
rhizomatic learning which is episode 150
and then episode 75 titled rhizomatic
learning with Catherine bornhurst John
Stapleton and Katie Henry I'll include
links to all those in the show notes but
in those episodes we talk about how you
don't have to have a linear path in fact
you don't even have to have a
predetermined path students can actually
come up with him that's a novel idea in
educational context instead of top-down
Educators saying hey student we are the
Knowing person you are going to learn
this thing that we have determined for
you instead you could start with hey
student within this domain like computer
science what is it that you actually
want to learn what kind of projects
could you create or things might you
explore or how might you express
yourself through computer science or how
might you investigate your interest in
computer science but I won't rant on
that too much more because we talk about
it more in other episodes check this out
on the show notes at jaredoleery.com or
by going to the description in wherever
you're listening to this on right now
now here's a really interesting way of
kind of thinking about this shift in
approach so this is a quote from page
quote at a certain moment the canvas
began to appear to one American painter
after another as an arena in which to
act rather than as a space in which to
reproduce redesign analyze or Express an
object actual or imagined what was to go
on the canvas was not a picture but an
event the painter no longer approached
his easel with an image in his mind he
went up to it with material in front of
him the image would be the result of
this encounter end quote so if we think
of a lot of like artwork like in the
Renaissance it may have been I'm going
to paint this I don't know basket of
fruit but in a lot of contemporary forms
of creating art a artist might go up to
Canvas have the materials like paint
supplies or whatever and they're just
kind of explore how they might create
whether it's I'm not going to use
brushes today I'm just going to use my
forearms and paint with that or I'm
going to drop some paint onto the canvas
and kind of see what happens and then
use that as inspiration for other things
that I'm going to do these are all
approach coaches to creating artwork
that did not have an end goal in mind
other than I'm going to explore a
process so a little bit further down in
the next section titled problem-based
objectives and expressive outcomes
Eisner poses two other alternatives to
behavioral objectives so thinking more
broadly Eisner suggests well another way
then this one might really resonate with
computer science Educators but another
way is problem solving objectives but
it's very different than how many people
talk about problem solving in computer
science so here's a quote from page 101
quote in the problem-solving objective
the students formulate or are given a
problem to solve say to find out how
deterrence to smoking might be more
effective or how to design a paper
structure that will hold two bricks 16
inches above a table or how the variety
and quality of food serve in the school
cafeteria could be increased within the
existing budget in each of these
examples the problem is posed in the
criteria that need to be achieved to
resolve the problem are fairly clear but
the forms of its solution are virtually
infinite end quote that is a very
important distinction there as opposed
to what is typically taught in like
puzzle-based platforms where there is
one correct solution to be able to solve
a particular problem this is instead
saying hey broadly speaking we have this
problem and there are an infinite number
of ways that we can kind of solve this
particular problem this gets at like
what Wiggins and mctai talks about in
their understanding by a design
framework of like a big idea or an
essential question it is not a specific
question but it is a question that could
be explored through many different
perspectives and many different
solutions to a particular problem and
this does relate to some of the computer
science standards like csta's national
standards so here's a quote from page
of the solutions the forms I take are
highly variable alternative solutions to
problem solving objectives could be
discussed in class so that the students
could begin to appreciate the Practical
costs in quote now think of that in
relation to like some of the algorithms
and programming standards where you are
to compare or contrast like multiple
algorithms so if we have a problem and
the students come up with different
algorithms to solve that particular
problem cool let's put them on both up
on the board and let's talk about how
they are similar and different which one
works for different scenarios and which
one's better in what ways or worse in
what ways and why but that kind of an
idea of comparing and understanding
could be done not just at the
algorithmic level but at the broader
level of solutions to problems not just
like comparing line by line how is this
for Loop used compared to a while loop
but instead thinking of what kind of
thought went into the solution of the
problem so instead of focusing on syntax
we focus on the thought that went behind
the project or solution to a problem and
Eisner relates this to like engineers
and Architects there are many different
ways that an engineer might construct a
bridge or that an architect might create
a building many different floor plans
that can be used many different
materials that can be used all of these
will have different kind of impacts and
what the engineers and The Architects
know in advance are the problems not
necessarily the solutions what might be
considered an appropriate solution might
not be understood until Midway through
or even towards the end of work on a
particular problem if you're
constructing a bridge and you had some
assumptions going into mind and you find
out well that uh water is not as solid
as we think we need to construct
something to stabilize some of the
pillars or an architect will drop a
floor plan and bring it to the client
and the client might go yeah we like
this but what if you can make it an open
floor concept I've been watching HD TV
and they go back to the drawing board
and they come up with a new potential
solution to that new context that is
provided but then we relate this to
scientists and Eisner points out that
scientists are often the ones who are
actually coming up with the problems
that they're going to investigate and
that gets back to what I was just
talking about with rise and manic
learning so instead of teachers coming
into a context and saying to a student
hey we have a problem you the student
are going to solve this instead we can
say hey student what kind of problems
might you solve what kind of questions
do you have where might you explore this
is a very different approach that
relates to the rhizomatic approach
that's discussed in many other podcast
episodes on this podcast and again I
include links to those in the show notes
this approach instead of a behavioral
objective quote places a premium on
cognitive flexibility on intellectual
exploration on the higher mental
processes End quotes from page 103 but
Eisner has a third approach a third
approach to educational aims and so
rather than calling them an expressive
objective Eisner prefers to use the term
expressive outcomes and kind of
distinguishes between the two on page
one ends up with intended or not after
some form of Engagement expressive
outcomes are the consequences of
curriculum activities that are
intentionally planned to provide a
fertile field for personal purposing and
experience end quote so again this had a
profound impact on my approach to the
classroom which I talk about on episode
characteristics in computer science
education but rather than designing a
lesson that was carefully constructed to
guide students through a series of tasks
that minimize cognitive load i instead
created a space in which students could
freely explore things that they were
interested in and then I facilitated
that one-on-one rather than directing
everyone through the exact same thing
because again going back to what we
talked about earlier not everyone is
going to walk away from the exact same
experience with the same understanding
or same takeaway some students might
walk away going I now better understand
what a for Loop is while other students
will walk away going I really don't like
computer science and that's unfortunate
if we instead flip it so that we start
with what are you interested in how can
we explore that interest through
computer science then students might be
more interested in the subjects actually
being taught and this is for any subject
area I might have paid more attention in
my other classes if I found why it was
relevant for me to know what a matrix
was in pre-calc I could solve them I
don't know why I needed to know how to
solve them if I could find a way to make
it relevant to my own life then great
maybe I would have paid more attention
here's a for page 104 quote I believe
that it is perfectly appropriate for
teachers and others involved in
curriculum development to plan
activities that have no explicit or
precise objectives in an age of
accountability this sounds like heresy
yet surely there must be room in school
for activities that promise to be
fruitful even though the teacher might
not be able to say What specifically the
students will learn or experience
parents do this all the time the trip to
the zoo weekend spent camping in the
woods the bicycle ride after dinner no
specific objective or problems are posed
prior to setting out on such activities
yet we feel that they will be enjoyable
and that some good will come from them
curriculum planning and schooling in
general need not always be single-minded
in their Pursuits forever focusing on
objectives that are by definition always
Out Of Reach purposes need not proceed
activities they can be formulated in the
process of action itself end quote now
there is a figure figure two and so in
this figure it talks about how
behavioral objectives leads to the
behavioral activity problems solving
objectives leads to a problem-solving
activity but with expressive outcomes
it's actually flipped the direction so
the expressive activity leads to an
expressive outcome so rather than
starting with the end in mind with the
outcome in mind it starts with the
activity or the experience whether or
not you actually have a behavioral
objective planned in advance the actual
outcome is not going to be what you
think it is even if a student can
demonstrate understanding of something
like successfully demonstrate how to use
a for Loop inside of a very specific
program great that's not the only
outcome that comes out of this we have
to acknowledge that students are going
to walk away from this with many
different understandings of that
particular lesson or experience it might
relate to what they learn and that might
be like a computer science concept or
practice and it might also be that they
don't like computer science or that they
do like computer science and Hammer at
home if we focus on those things that
students want to explore the concepts
and the practices will fall in line
because as they explore their interests
they're going to have to learn these
Concepts and practice is to be able to
create what they want but if we start
focusing on the rote little things like
what is recursion Etc and we don't
actually get to the application of
understanding in a meaningful way until
a Capstone project at the very end we
might lose students along the way like
as somebody who went through School of
Music can say that many musicians get
burned out because they don't actually
get to perform the things that they
enjoy they did in high school most
likely they were able to pick their
solos for solo and Ensemble or or their
audition repertoire to get into a school
of music but then when they get into
school music the way that it's often
done is a professor will assign you a
piece to learn that is supposed to push
you in a newer Direction but if you
don't like that piece of music you might
spend months or in semesters or years
working on something you actually don't
enjoy playing and so many musicians get
so burned out because they're no longer
playing music that they enjoy and
instead are just focusing on the Rope
mechanics to improve their musicianship
and expressiveness in a way that is no
longer meaningful to that individual so
they walk away from it going I don't
like music anymore this happened to
myself I took quite some time off from
making music or practicing it and this
can happen in education as well if you
are forced to focus on things that you
are not interested in in a subject area
it's going to go in one ear angle out
the other one as soon as you are done
applying that understanding but if we
instead focus on how to explore these
Concepts and practices in ways that are
meaningful to that individual then maybe
just maybe they'll actually want to
continue to do it after the close of the
classroom but you might only get one
semester or one quarter or maybe even an
entire year to do that and because of
that you might feel very constrained
with how much you're supposed to teach
in that period of time but if you cram
everything into the most effective and
efficient way possible in your quarter
or semester or whatever and you hit all
of those objectives great but the
outcome is that student will never want
to engage in computer science again in
the long run was that worth it I would
argue it does more harm than good
because instead of learning how to use
computer science in everyday life and
cultivating a desire to continue to use
it at the close of that particular
course instead of a student walks away
from it understanding these Concepts and
practices but doesn't want to ever
engage in it again then I think we
failed them but that's my own biased
opinion now there's an interesting thing
that Eisner points out at the bottom of
page 104 top of page 100 five so Eisner
talks about Tyler rationale which is
something that I'd recommend taking a
look at if you're unfamiliar with the
Tyler rationale it kind of has set the
course for how most schooling and
curricula is done this is from the like
mid 1900s but the way that Tyler
discussed objectives was that they were
educational objectives but this was
later changed to instructional objective
and then eventually changed to
behavioral objective and more recently
to Performance objective but Eiser
points out that quote Behavioral or
performance objectives may or may not be
educational the normative aspect of
Education no longer is a part of them
one can have a behavioral objective that
aims at creating racist or paranoids
such an aim could hardly be regarded as
educational unless of course racism and
paranoia were a part of one's conception
of Education end quote from page 105. so
if we focus on the things that students
do we can often lose sight of what
they're actually learning from that so
for example I often see like with the
scratch rubrics and whatnot it's like
you might get one point for one Sprite
three points for three Sprites and five
points if you include five Sprites in
your projects but what are they actually
learning from that and how does that
relate to what they want to create maybe
they're creating a monologue or a single
player game with one character exploring
a deserted planet or maybe they're
creating a conversation between friends
each one of those projects May lend
itself to more or less Sprites but how
does the number of Sprites actually
relate to what students are going to
learn maybe if they're using
broadcasting messages from one Sprite to
another then maybe that's an important
thing to consider but is the focus on
the number of Sprites or is it focus on
the application of understanding using
broadcast blocks I'd argue it's the
second one and not the first one so
we've really got to focus on not just
what students will do or demonstrate but
what they will learn through that
demonstration of understanding but a
little bit further down Eisner asks the
questions well how specific should these
objectives be if we are going to have
like expressive outcomes or
problem-based or behavioral objectives
how specific should they be and so
Eisner does some quick math and
basically says that if we start adding
in more and more objectives for each one
of the lessons across the course of a
week we might have hundreds of
objectives that students are going to be
engaging in but rather than having
teachers focus on all of those
objectives for all of the different
standards in all of the different
subject areas they might teach Eisner
instead recommends focusing on other
areas because teachers deal with far
more than just the standards and the
objectives that are written not on the
board at the front of the classroom
quote these objectives are not found in
lists they are not written although some
school districts have compiled such
lists of the objectives in notebooks the
size of the New York City telephone
directory these objectives are a part of
the personal and psychological
repertoire that teachers draw on each
day when working with students in quotes
from page 106. a little bit further down
on 106 and into 107 quote consider for a
moment the range of problems content
context and individuals with which a
teacher must deal not only must there be
some sense of purpose or direction to
the activities in which teachers are
engaged but also the priorities among
those projects must be considered
altered or sustained when does a teacher
for the time being wisely forget about
the goal of helping a student learn to
spell a set of words correctly or learn
how to punctuate an adverbial clause and
instead attend to other aims aims that
are also part of his or her aspirations
for the student but not an explicit part
of that particular segment of the
curriculum when does a teacher choose to
make educational Capital out of
unexpected opportunities in the
classroom an offhand remark by a student
or Keen Insight by another and in so
doing depart from his or her previously
specified objective all of these happen
in classrooms at least those that are
not rigidly tied to a set of
single-minded AIMS in particular
Elementary classrooms often acquire
their own Tempo the students become
immersed in what was to be a casual
short-term project and teachers often
yield to such Tempo recognizing the need
for an organic as contrasted to a
mechanical treatment of time thus from
one point of view 845 objectives are far
more than any teacher can reasonably be
expected to focus on 420 would be
equally difficult yet at the same time
teachers operate with thousands of
objectives in the form of their
aspirations for the student with whom
they work the major difference is that
their latter aims are implicit and
contextual rather than explicit and
prepared prior to the specific context
in which they are to teach end quote now
this is a really really really important
thing to consider there is a lot of
discussion going on because of
generative Ai and just AI in general and
in this discussion some people are
hypothesizing but there's not going to
be a need for teachers in the future
that we're just going to have ai and
programs and whatnot make it so that we
can have custom experiences for students
so that they can learn how to solve
problems and if they're engaging in a
problem that's difficult it will will
identify and find the best solution yada
yada yada and if again we treat students
as inert objects sure that approach
works great but if we recognize that
students are human beings we might come
to a different conclusion maybe just
maybe AI is not the solution to
education but that's my own perspective
and you can disagree with me on this
podcast there's a contact me button on
my website jaredeliry.com I'd love to
have you on as a guest but there is a
book by Audrey Waters that is titled
teaching machines the history of
personalized learning I recommend taking
a look at that this has actually gone on
for decades and decades it's a really
interesting concept to consider speaking
of Concepts to consider at the end of
these unpacking scholarship episodes I'd
like to talk about some lingering
questions or thoughts that I have so one
question that I might ask is what does
your school's curriculum focus on does
it focus on behavioral objectives
problem-based objectives or expressive
outcomes and how would you balance the
three types in your classroom if you
could wave a magic wand and have the
ideal kind of setup would you lean
towards one over another would you have
for each of them or when do or don't we
need to balance these three types of
objectives maybe we could have it so
that all of them are problem-based
objectives or all of them are expressive
outcomes there's not necessarily A
one-size-fits-all approach to it but
certainly that is how many people talk
about education so think about your
context who you are working with what
the goals of not just your District are
or your curriculum is but of the
students and the communities that you
work with and consider them in relation
to behavioral problem-based objectives
and expressive outcomes but then another
thing we might consider is in what ways
do or don't standardized educational
objectives align with equity-based
pedagogies again we've talked about
razzmatic learning and interest driven
learning Etc but those are very
different approaches to what is
typically done from a pedagogical
standpoint is what is typically done
more Equity based or are the things that
I've talked about more Equity based your
answer to that might differ from mine
and that's something that as a field we
should discuss in my opinion but another
broader question that I have is is there
a correlation between politicians with
industry business or military
backgrounds and voting for
performance-based objectives in
classrooms we often have these Outsiders
who are politicians lawmakers Etc who
come into the educational Space by an
outsider imposing their own perspectives
onto teaching and learning while well
intentioned we get this very industrial
approach to education as a system that
treats students again as inert objects
this is problematic for so many reasons
discussed in this chapter that was
unpacked in this episode as well as in
some of the episodes that are talking
about social emotional learning which
I'll link to in the show notes at
jaredolary.com I hope this episode helps
you reconsider or think through some of
the hegemonic influences or the
structures of structures in the
educational system but also from a more
granular level questioning what kind of
objectives am I writing on the board and
are those actually useful or how might I
reframe them to be customized and more
interesting to the kids that I work with
if you enjoyed this episode please
consider sharing this on social media or
with a friend or family member again you
can find all the show notes at
jaredolary.com where there are hundreds
if not thousands of free computer
science education and right now over
a bunch of gaming content as well
because I'm a nerd but don't worry it's
neatly organized so you don't have to
see any of the gaming content if you
don't want to stay tuned next week for
another episode until then I hope you're
all staying safe and are having a
wonderful week
Chapter
Eisner, E. W. (2002). Educational aims, objectives, and other aspirations. In The educational imagination: On the design and evaluation of school programs (3rd ed.). Upper Saddle River, NJ: Merrill Prentice Hall, 93-107.
My One Sentence Summary
This chapter problematizes behavioral education objectives and discuss two alternative approaches.
Some Of My Lingering Questions/Thoughts
What does your school's curriculum focus on: behavioral objectives, problem-solving objectives, or expressive outcomes?
How would you balance the three types in your classroom?
When do(n’t) we need to balance these three types of objectives?
In what ways do(n’t) standardized educational objectives align with equity-based pedagogies?
Is there a correlation between politicians with industry/business/military backgrounds and voting for performance based objectives?
Resources/Links Relevant to This Episode
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