1. They help teachers make their own educational goals explicit.
2. They communicate the intent of instruction to others (students, parents, etc.).
3. They provide a basis for teachers to analyze what they teach and to construct learning exercises.
4. They describe specific performances against which the teacher can evaluate learning.
5. They help educators focus and clarify discussion of educational goals with others (e.g., parents).
6. They communicate to students expected performance which gives them control over learning.
7. They make it easier to individualize instruction.
8. They help teachers evaluate and improve instructional procedures and instructional targets.

Importance of learning targets for classroom assessment:

1. General planning for an assessment procedure is made easier by knowing the specific outcomes desired.
2. Selecting, designing , and crafting assessment procedures depends on knowing the specific achievements to be assessed.
3. Evaluating an existing assessment procedure is easier when you know the learning targets.
4. Properly judging content relevance of an assessment procedure requires the teacher to know specific achievements to be assessed.

educational goals - activities which contribute to the functioning of society (and individuals within a society) and which can be acquired through learning. Educational goals are broader then learning targets and give direction and purpose to planning overall educational activities.

Educational goals inform curriculum frameworks (e.g., standards) which inform classroom learning targets.

Educational goals are usually stated too broadly to be useful for classroom lesson planning and assessments (e.g., Every student should acquire mathematical measurement skills.).

general learning targets - more specific than educational goals and clear enough for general planning of a course (e.g., Acquire the skills needed to use common instruments to measure length, volume, and mass in metric units.).

To assess attainment of a general learning target, it needs to be broken down into specific learning targets (e.g., Measure the length of objects to the nearest tenth of a meter using a meter stick.).

Teachers should be cautious not to overspecify learning because it can fragment what is to be learned into disconnected bits of material. Also, long lists of objectives tend to be ignored. The teacher should identify a few of the most important learning targets for a unit of instruction.

Learning and assessment situations should use combinations of specific skills and knowledge to perform complex tasks and solve real-world problems (e.g., the "Beans-in-a-jar" problem on p.14 in the text requires the use of several different strategies the student can choose from).

Assessment procedures should focus on the processes students use, not just the correctness of answers.

standards - statements about what students are expected to learn.

content standards - statements about subject matter facts, concepts, principles, generalizations, theories, etc., that students are expected to learn.

performance standards - statements about the things students can perform or do once content standards are learned.

A state's set of standards is really a set of general learning targets.

Standards are not consistent across states and some states have incomplete sets of standards.

Assessment techniques focus on observing what students are doing so the teacher can infer what they have learned.

mastery learning targets - also termed specific learning targets and behavioral objectives, these state what students can do as a result of instruction and suggest ways of assessing them (e.g., The student can list the parts of a cell and describe the structures included in each..

developmental learning targets - also called developmental objectives, these statements imply a set of skills or abilities that are developed continuously throughout life and are stated at a higher level of abstraction (e.g., Combine information and ideas from several sources to reach conclusions and solve problems.).

• each statement represents a broad domain of loosely related performances.
• each statement represents skills or abilities that continuously develop to higher levels (versus being "all or none" as are mastery learning targets).

Taxonomies are useful for helping to write learning targets.

Taxonomies of instructional learning targets - highly organized schemes for classifying learning targets into varying levels of complexity.

cognitive domain - outcomes which focus on knowledge and abilities requiring memory, thinking, and reasoning processes.

affective domain - outcomes which focus in feelings, interests, attitudes, dispositions, and emotional states

psychomotor domain - outcomes which focus on motor skills and perceptual processes.

Learning targets within each domain can be classified using a taxonomy for that domain.

Bloom's Taxonomy

Bloom's taxonomy classifies cognitive performances into six domains arranged from simple to more complex as follows:

Knowledge - involves the recall of specifics and universals, the recall of methods and processes, or the recall of a pattern, structure, or setting.

Comprehension - represents the lowest level of understanding where the individual knows what is being communicated and can make use of it without necessarily being able to relate it to other material or understand its fullest implications.

Application - the use of abstractions in particular and concrete situations to solve new or novel problems. These abstractions can be in the form of general ideas, rules, procedures, or generalized methods.

Analysis - the breakdown of a communication into its constituent parts or elements such that the relative hierarchy of ideas is made clear and/or the relations between ideas are made explicit.

Synthesis - the putting together of elements and parts to form a whole, or to constitute a pattern or structure not clearly present before.

Evaluation - judgments about the value or worth of materials an/or methods for a given purpose (extent to which materials and methods fit certain criteria).

(Appendix D in the textbook further expands on this taxonomy).

The usefulness of this taxonomy is that it calls to the teachers attention the variety of abilities and skills that can direct instruction and assessment, but it should not be used as a teaching hierarchy where you first teach knowledge, then comprehension, etc.

Learning targets in the first three levels are more easily assessed with multiple-choice, short-answer, true-false, and matching test items (explained further in later chapters).

Learning targets in the last three levels can also be assessed with these item formats, but essay questions, projects, performance observations, and portfolios are more adequate for this type of assessment.

Dimensions of Learning Model

This model is an alternative to the more popular Bloom's taxonomy, and it organizes small categories of thinking into seven broader categories derived from research on higher-order thinking. The categories are as follows:

Declarative knowledge - these learning targets tell students what facts, ideas, generalizations, and/or theories you will be assessing.

Procedural knowledge - these learning targets tell students the skills and/or procedures you will be assessing.

Complex thinking - these learning targets tell students what types of reasoning strategies and ways of applying knowledge you will be assessing.

Information processing - these learning targets tell students what aspects of information gathering, information synthesizing, information evaluating, and information needs assessment you will be assessing.

Effective communication - these learning targets tell students which aspects of ideal communication, audience communication, purposes for communication, and products for communication you will be assessing.

Collaboration and cooperation - these learning targets tell students what types of work on group goals, interpersonal skills, group maintenance activities, and multiple role activities you will be assessing.

Habits of mind - these learning targets tell students what types of self-regulation, critical thinking, and creative performances you will be assessing.

Marzano et al. (1993), developers of the taxonomy, state that teaching and assessment should require students to perform complex tasks using skills from several of these categories. For complex learning tasks, the traditional one-learning-target-one-taxonomy-category may not be appropriate.

Two things to remember when using these taxonomies is that thinking skills may not always be hierarchical, and performance on complex tasks involves using several thinking skills at the same time (hence, a learning target may be classified into more than one category).

The main purpose for using a taxonomy is to give teachers a tool to judge whether they have assessed a wide range of higher- and lower-order thinking skills.

When classifying a learning targets into a category, make sure the skill is the one most prominently used by that category, and that the category fits the main intent of the learning target.

More taxonomies for learning targets can be found in appendices D & E in the textbook. You should apply the following criteria when selecting a taxonomy to use in your classroom:

1. completeness - the degree to which the major learning targets can be classified within the taxonomy.
2. point of view - extent to which the taxonomy can be used as a platform for explaining teaching methods or curriculum characteristics to others.
3. reform - extent to which the taxonomy helps to evaluate the curriculum or learning targets and leads to revision of learning targets.
4. simplicity - ease with which the end users (e.g., teachers) understand the taxonomy.
5. reporting - usefulness of the taxonomy as a means of organizing reports of assessment results for individual students, educational officials, and others (e.g., the public).

Sources of learning targets include instructional materials, teachers' manuals, local and state curriculum guides, state performance standards, books on teaching methods, test manuals, and reports from educational associations.

Although these sources may no be consistent, it is much easier to adapt or revise existing learning targets than to try and write them from scratch.

Learning targets will also apply across several domains or subject areas, so you may find applicable ones to your domain in other sources.

Practical criteria for evaluating a list of learning targets for a course or unit:

1. Be sure all the learning targets are appropriate for the educational level of the students.
2. Be sure the list of learning targets is limited to only the important outcomes for the course.
3. Be sure all the learning targets are consistent with your state standards.
4. Be sure all the learning targets are consistent with your school's philosophy and general goals.
5. Be sure all the learning targets can be defended by currently accepted learning principles.
6. Be sure all the learning targets can be taught in the time limits of the course.
7. Be sure all the learning targets can be taught with the teaching resources you have available.

Three minimum criteria for learning targets assures their usefulness for classroom assessment:

student centered - learning targets should focus on the student.

Performance centered - learning targets should be worded in terms of what a student can perform after the learning experience.

Content centered - learning targets should state the specific content to which the student should apply the performance.

Finally, teachers need to ensure that assessments match the mastery and developmental learning targets outlined in the course. This is one reason why the use of multiple assessments is encouraged. This increases comprehensiveness of the assessment and provides for more reliable inferences.

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