Backward Design Step 4: Identify Unit Objectives

In the development of your course structure, you were asked to break your course into smaller units. Not only do units provide a useful conceptual framework that helps students understand how content is organized, they also help to guide you in more detailed design. With units identified, you can create more concrete unit objectives that help support your course outcomes, which tend to be more conceptual. The writing of good unit objectives will yield the greatest returns in the course design process. Well‑constructed unit objectives help an instructor know what they want to teach, identify the ways in which students will be assessed, help students know what they will learn, and can help the department, program, and/or institution know how the course is meeting accreditation standards.

Qualities of good unit objectives

• SPECIFIC — The unit objective describes the knowledge, attitudes, or skills that a learner should be able to demonstrate following a learning activity.
• MEASURABLE — The achievement of the unit objective can be measured by test items, observation, problem‑solving exercises, or other assessment methods during or after an activity.
• ATTAINABLE — The unit objective includes an action verb that demonstrates change or acquisition of knowledge, attitudes, or behaviors.
• RELEVANT — The unit objective reflects realistic expectations of student knowledge, attitude, or behavior.
• TIME-BASED — The unit objective specifies the time frame in which learners are expected to achieve it.

Bloom's Taxonomy

Bloom's Taxonomy is a set of three hierarchical domains (cognitive, affective, and psychomotor) used to classify educational learning objectives into levels of complexity and specificity. While instructors are challenged to create higher‑level activities, these activities are dependent on students having already attained the prerequisite knowledge and skills at lower levels. A goal of Bloom’s Taxonomy is to motivate educators to focus on building a learning path for the student from lower‑level to higher‑level learning. When writing good unit objectives, it is important to determine the desired level of Bloom’s Taxonomy for the unit. Once this is determined, select an appropriate verb associated with that level.

Bloom's Cognitive Doman

In the book Taxonomy of Educational Objectives. Handbook 1: Cognitive Domain, Benjamin Bloom defines the cognitive domain as including knowledge and the development of intellectual skills, recall or recognition of specific facts, procedural patterns, and concepts that serve in the development of intellectual abilities and skills (Bloom et al. 1956).

• CREATE — Putting elements together to form a coherent or functional whole; reorganizing elements into a new pattern or structure through generating, planning, or producing.
• EVALUATE — Making judgments based on criteria and standards through checking and critiquing.
• ANALYZE — Breaking material into constituent parts, determining how the parts relate to one another, and creating an overall structure or purpose through differentiating, organizing, and attributing.
• APPLY — Carrying out or using a procedure through executing or implementing.
• UNDERSTAND — Constructing meaning from oral, written, and graphic messages through interpreting, exemplifying, classifying, summarizing, inferring, comparing, and explaining.
• REMEMBER — Retrieving, recognizing, and recalling relevant knowledge from long‑term memory.

Bloom's affective domain

In the book Taxonomy of Educational Objectives: Handbook 2: Affective Domain, David Krathwohl, Benjamin Bloom, and Bertram Masia defined the affective domain as including the manner in which we deal with things emotionally, such as feelings, values, appreciation, enthusiasm, motivations, and attitudes (Krathwohl, et al. 1965).

• INTERNALIZE — Developing a value system that controls their behavior.
• ORGANIZE — Organizing values into priorities.
• VALUE — Attaching worth or value to a particular object, phenomenon, or behavior.
• RESPOND TO PHENOMENA — Attending and reacting to a particular phenomenon.
• RECEIVE PHENOMENA — Experiencing awareness, willingness to hear, and selected attention.

Bloom's psychomotor domain

In the book The Classification of Educational Objectives: Psychomotor Domain, Elizabeth Simpson defines the psychomotor domain as including physical movement, coordination, and use of the motor‑skill areas. Development of these skills requires practice and is measured in terms of speed, precision, distance, procedures, or techniques in execution (Simpson 1972).

• ORIGINATION — Creating new movement patterns to fit a particular situation or specific problem.
• ADAPTATION — Modifying movement patterns to fit special requirements.
• COMPLEX OVERT RESPONSE — Performing motor acts involving complex movement.
• MECHANISM — Having responses that are habitual and can be performed with some confidence.
• GUIDED RESPONSE — Learning complex skills through trial and error.
• SET — Being ready to act through mental, physical, and emotional states.
• PERCEPTION — Using sensory cues to guide motor activity.

See Also:

• Backward Design Step 1: Identify Situational Factors
• Backward Design Step 2: Identify Course Outcomes
• Backward Design Step 3: Define Course Structure
• Backward Design Step 4: Identify Unit Objectives
• Backward Design Step 5: Identify Evidence of Understanding
• Backward Design Step 6: Select Learning Activities For Your Course
• Backward Design Step 7: Integrate Course Elements
• Backward Design Step 8: Debug Your Course
• Backward Design Step 9: Evaluate Your Course