Structure
1 Introduction
2. Objectives
3 Formulation of Instructional Objectives
3.1 Cognitive Domain Objectives
3.2 Psychomotor Domain Objectives
3.3 Affective Domain Objectives
4. Terminal Objectives of Primary Education in EVS
5 National Policy on Education (1986) and Minimum Levels of Learning (MLL)
5.1 Basic Features of MLL
5.2 A Word of Caution
1 INTRODUCTION
In the previous unit you have studied about the concept and need for teaching Environmental
Studies at the Primary Level. This unit is about the formulation of instructional objectives
for environmental studies.
As the main objectives of education is the all -round development of the child or the
learner, we have to keep in mind all the aspects of his personality, i.e., mental, physical,
emotional, social while formulating any educational objectives. This holds true for
Environmental Studies as well as.
To achieve the laid down objectives pertaining to Environmental Studies, the following
aspects have been discussed in this unit.
i) Formulation of instructional/objectives of teaching EVS at primary stage.
ii) The three main domains of instructional objectives along with their specifications/
competencies.
iii) Essential learning outcomes (ELO) of some units as sample.
2 OBJECTIVES
After going through this unit you will be able to :
! identify the objectives of teaching Environmental Studies;
! develop skills of writing instructional objectives on the basis of global-national and
local considerations; pertaining to environmental studies;
! formulate unit-wise Essential Learning Outcomes (ELOs).
3 FORMULATION OF INSTRUCTIONAL OBJECTIVES
We all know that learning is a complex phenomena. The development of ideas and
understanding goes hand in hand with the development of skills and attitudes. There is an
essential interdependence of these aspects of learning. Learning with understanding involves development of ideas through learners own thinking and action and in environmental
science it means that skills are used and through use are developed to deal with new
situations. Attitudes being more generalised components of behaviours than skills and
concepts, depend upon bring fostered in a wide range of experiences since there is no
way of teaching attitudes directly. This essential interconnectedness of understanding or
concepts and ideas, skills and attitudes is not denied by focussing on each one at a time as
is being done here. We are simply looking at different facts of a whole. This has to be
borne in mind while formulating objectives.
What is an Objective? An objective is simply a clear statement that identifies a behaviour
the teacher deems important. It usually consists of one or two sentences describing how
the child will behave when the has reached the desired goal. The outstanding characteristic
of behavioural objectives is that they must be based on behaviour that the teacher can
actually see. As indicated above, objectives can and should cover many areas of learning
rather than just the cognitive domain.
Pros and Cons of Using Behavioural Objectives
In the late 1960s and 1970s the pros and cons of using such objectives were hotly debated
by educators. Some believed that using them stifled and narrowed educational purposes.
They cited cases in which writing objective required much of the teacher’s time and then
they were never looked at again. They disapproved of objectives because they believed
they encouraged a cut-and-dried approach to teaching based mainly on the principles of
behaviour modification. Others argues that some of the more valuable kinds of social and
emotional learning could not be specific if behavioural terms. Another criticism was that
often such objectives were writter to specify behaviour that had the sole virtue of being
readily observed but that was of little importance otherwise.
There is no denying that objectives can be miswritten or misused. However, when objectives
are properly employed, they can help teachers this seriously about which goals have the
greatest value. They also enable teachers to clearly define how they will be able to tell
when the child has reached these goals.
Consider the following excerpt from the diary of a school teacher teaching environmental
studies: “Our little school situated in a beautiful valley, has as its goal, the development of
the whole child — We want her to be mentally healthy, physically able, authentically creative
and socially sensitive”. There is nothing wrong with this statement as a long range, general
foundation for teaching environmental studies but many teachers never bother to ask
themselves seriously what practical steps they will take to translate such goals into the
daily reality of the children’s lives. Behavioural objectives can play a role here by helping
teacher bridge this gap between broad purposes and actuality.
Instructional objective are formulated or designed to bring about desired changes in pupil’s
behaviour after completion of a particular area of learning. The objectives can be grouped
into the following three domains:
i) Cognitive
ii) Psychomotor (skill) and
iii) Affective
Let us discuss these domains in detail.
3.1 Cognitive Domain Objectives
What is a cognitive domain objectives? It is concerned with the mental ability of the
learner. It includes recalling or remembering, explaining, reasoning, interpreting and problem
-solving of an area of learning.
Psychologists and educationists have identified four levels or expected behaviour outcomes
under the cognitive domain. These are ! knowledge,
! comprehension/understanding,
! application, and
! creativity
Knowledge (K) : This objective includes remembering of facts, figures, letters, words,
etc. It involves mental process of recognition, recall, recollection and so on.
Comprehension/Understanding (U) : This objective lays stress on relationship and
discriminating various content areas. It involves change in the thinking of the learner. The
specific behaviour includes the ability to cite similar examples, identify relationships,
differentiate, classify things and make generalisations.
Application (A) : This objective involves the ability to use the knowledge or information
acquired in different/new situations. It requires the mental process of reasoning, framing
hypothesis and inferring. These behaviours are linked with problem-solving abilities.
Creativity: This should be considered the main objective of the learning process. It involves
the ability to analyse an unfamiliar or new situation / problem and development of something
unique by the individual. It also involves ability to identify distant relationship between
things; to imagine new situations, to develop new and original design/machine or model. It
is the quality of creativity which leads to the production of something new and desirable.
3.2 Psychomotor Domain Objectives
In this domain learning depends on mastery of a physical skill.
It includes the demonstrative skills and performing specific tasks, for example, writing,
reading, making illustrations, diagrams and maps, etc. This domain has not however received
the attention and development of the cognitive and affective domains. It is an important
area in environmental studies.
3.3 Affective Domain Objectives
These objectives aim to develop certain interests, attitudes, appreciation and values
among pupils. Interests are most temporary of these and values are the most permanent;
Attitudes and appreciation lie somewhere in between. But all the four components are
connected with one’s feeling. For example, your interest in improving sanitation in your
school campus may be temporary. But if all your actions, habits, motivation and concerns
are directed towards environmental sanitation and improvement of it may be permanent.
In a learning situation, the teacher must aim at the development of all aspects of learner’s
personality. That is why a child centred approach is always recommended to achieve
effective results. Instructional objectives written in behavioural terms with proper
action verbs are called behavioural objectives. Behavioural objectives are testable but an
overemphasis should be avoided. Behavioural objectives need only be used as a thumb
rule because they indicate what a learner has to learn and what a teacher has to evaluate.
Given below are examples of instructional objectives under each domain. To achieve the objectives of teaching Environmental Studies, children should be made to:
collect information and data; classify and analyse it, find relationships among the
components; interpret giving reason and draw inferences. In this process children also
develop psychomotor skills, such as making models, drawing, maps, locating places in the
map, etc. Teaching of Environmental Studies also helps children to develop desirable
attitudes, values, and behaviour pattern necessary for environment friendly life style.
4 TERMINAL OBJECTIVES OF PRIMARY EDUCATION IN EVS
The curriculum of EVS has been built around ten major competencies. It is expected that
at the primary stage these competencies should be achieved by all children. These major
competencies are listed below : i) Development of awareness about his/her well-being in the context of social and natural
environment.
ii) Exploring important aspects of his/her socio-civic environment, and understanding its
various aspects.
iii) Knowing about various people at work and appreciating the importance about the
world of work.
iv) Understanding and interpreting the relationship between man and his environment.
v) Understanding the relationship between man’s past and present, while holding the
past in its perspective;
vi) Sensing common but simple and easily observable socio-economic situations and
problems, analysing them, and seeking their possible solutions.
vii) Understanding the factors affecting human health, and the essential requirements for
maintaining good health.
viii) Developing skills to gather and classify information about living things from one’s
environment and making simple inferences from the gathered information.
ix) Observing and examining some common characteristics of non-living things.
x) Observing simple phenomena on the earth and in the sky, knowing their reasons, and
drawing inferences.
To develop these competencies grade by grade, they have been further divided into subcompetencies. These sub-competencies are also related to specific content areas.
5 NATIONAL POLICY ON EDUCATION (1986) AND MINIMUM LEVELS OF LEARNING (MLL)
One of the important recommendation of the National Policy on Education -1986 , (Revised
1992) was regarding the standing of learning to be achieved by all children at each stage of
education. In NPE was mentioned that ‘Minimum Levels of Learning will be laid down
for each stage of education’.
In order to bring about uniformity in the standard of education throughout the country all
children must be given access to education of a comparable standard. The major focus of
policy formulation behind identifying Minimum Levels of Learning is on equity and quality.
The levels of learning should be achievable by every child. The MLLs were formulated
keeping in mind the age, aptitude and abilities of children and also the variety of learning
climates available in the primary schools of the country.
The other implications of this exercise are :
! lightening the curriculum of its textual load and also the burden of memorizing irrelevant
facts;
! enabling teachers to relate the textbook information to reality in day-to-day life by
making teaching-learning interesting, learner-centred and activity-based;
! developing in children the basic skills and competencies to such a level that these are
sustainable;
! mastery learning of the skills and competencies so that these are retained permanently;
! mastery learning of skills and competencies are not directed to only a few brighter
pupils but to all children including vast majority of first generation learners in the
primary school.
5.1 Basic Features of MLL
The following are some basic features of MLLs :
! These must meet the purpose of increasing learning attainment and severe
performance goals for teacher.
! These should be functional and relevant to the child.
! These should be stated in a way that is comprehensible to the teachers and can be
evaluated by them.
! These should be mastered by all children.
! Thus you can see that the purpose of formulating the Minimum Level of Learning
has been that these should correspond to the learning outcomes that can be achieved
by all learners.
5.2 A Word of Caution
What are the implications of formulating Minimum Levels of Learning and their attainment
by all pupils at the Mastery level?
What are the implications of formulating Minimum Levels of Learning and their attainment
by all pupils at the Mastery level?
You are aware that there exists a great variation in the conditions under which a primary
school functions. These are variations from one region to another and at the same place.
For this reason there should be a flexibility in implementation. The aim should be to help
pupils achieve these minimum levels of learning. But effective inputs should also be provided
to help each and every pupil achieve these levels of learning. A simple over emphasised
application of MLLs in the teaching-learning situations is not required. Again, like the
behavioural objectives these need to kept in mind only as a frame for reference. Once a
child is helped to achieve these levels of learning, it will help reduce not only the wastage
of resources but also the drop-out.
In the context of the above discussion, lets chalk out the role of the teacher:
! identify the goals of your teaching which are within reach of each and every child;
! direct your teaching-learning activities towards achieving specific goals;
! improve your teaching; give the requisite inputs in the process.
! assess your pupils more precisely whether they have attained the pre-defined levels
of learning;
! identify children who have mastered core learning outcomes necessary for tackling
situations in day-to-day life, help the other children to come to the same levels.
! communicate more precisely with parents on the attainment levels of learning by
pupils, seek their help and involvement.