Essay on Evaluation of Instructional Goals and Its Purpose

Instructional Goals can be described as statements that outline the expectations of what a learner should be able to do after going through a distinct set of instructions, otherwise referred to as lessons. Instructional goals are as a result of instructional needs. Teachers identify the instructional needs and then come up with instructional goals or targets which act as solutions to the identified need. The means to achieving the instructional goals are the Objectives. Objectives can be explained as the tools used in ensuring that the set goals are achieved. In essence, they are the expected learning outcomes after learners have gone through a certain unit. They form the foundation upon which lessons and assessments aimed at achieving the overall goal are built. The assessment of the learners performance is done against the instructional goals set by the tutor. This assessment is done at the end of the lesson or unit. Instructional goals, objectives, and assessment of student performance are all crucial in the learning and teaching processes for students and tutors respectively. This paper will be a response to explain the purposes of instructional goals, objectives, and assessment of performance, as well as create each of them to show the understanding of each.

An instructional goal is the basis of any learning lesson. It is the target which the lesson should be able to achieve for both the learner and the teacher. To come up with the instructional need, the teacher needs to identify the instructional need, which is described as the gap between what the student already knows and what the teacher wants him to know. It is good to note that not all educational needs will require instructional goals. This, therefore, calls for the teacher to determine whether the educational need requires an instructional goal or not. There are several purposes for the instructional goal. The main one is to bridge the gap between what the learners know and what the teacher wants them to know depending on the learning needs of the topic at hand. Secondly, these goals give perspective on the way the objectives should be set, and the way content should be delivered. Third, instructional goals assist teachers in the assessment of performance by measuring the students understanding of the topic against the goal.

Objectives are the means by which goals are achieved. They describe the expected outcomes for the learners at the end of a certain unit. Objectives give learning a better focus as the tutor compares the lessons given with the set objectives to ensure that he does not go off-track and that the goal is achieved in the end. With this in mind, the purpose of objectives cannot be underrated. This is because if the objectives are wrong, the expected goal will not be achieved and vice versa. This, therefore, calls for tutors to set clear objectives that are directly in line with the instructional goal. There are various purposes for setting clear objectives for the expected outcomes. One is that objectives provide a solid ground on which relevant learning activities and assessments can be done. All the activities and assessments conducted in any lesson should be based on the objectives. Second, objectives are the means by which tutors put across what they want their students to learn and how they will know how much the students have learned. Third, it is from the objectives that tutors get to design instructional topics that relate to each other. The major topic can be segmented into sub-topics that enhance the understanding of the topic to the learners. Four, the objectives assist students to understand what to expect from the lesson and develop a link between the expectations, teachings, and the grading. They can also do their research ahead of the lessons to better enhance their understanding better. Finally, tutors can get to assess their performance in delivery at the end of the lesson by comparing the achievement of the students against the set objectives and determine whether the instructional goal has been attained or not.

Assessment of student performance is usually done at the end of a topic. Learners are assessed on the attainment of the objectives which are the expected learning outcomes. Assessments are intended to test whether learners have attained the knowledge that they were set to attain at the beginning of the learning experience. An effective assessment procedure should compare the performance in line with the earlier designed learning objectives which point to the final goal for the unit. Assessment for student performance also, to an extent, point out to the performance of the teacher on knowledge delivery. The assessment also acts as a guide to the teacher on the areas that need to be revisited, the need to change teaching tactics if any, and sheds light on the capacity of the different students to grasp and process information. Through this, the teacher can approach the other topics as well as the students with this light.

In this section, we shall create one instructional goal, three related objectives which will be written as the expected outcomes, as well as two strategies for assessing student performance. As mentioned earlier, the instructional goal is as a result of an identified need. There is an identified gap for students when it comes to writing essays that are error-free. Therefore, our instructional goal is that every student in this class will write an essay with minimal grammatical errors at the end of this learning topic. This will form the basis for the objectives.

To achieve the goal of reducing grammatical errors, there will be three objectives. One, at the end of the topic, each student will be able to identify the different grammatical mistakes that are common in essays. Two, each student will be able to understand and follow instructions of essays given any topic, applying the correct grammar as taught. Three, each student will be able to write an essay free, or with minimal grammatical mistakes at the end of the topic. With these objectives, the teacher will be required to do several things along the way. One, help the students to learn all the grammatical mistakes identified with essay writing. This can be done by going through various essay examples that have errors and showing them how to correct them. Two, the teacher will be required to help the students to understand and follow instructions to ensure they use the required formatting and structure. The teacher will also take them through the various sentence and paragraph structures, as well as the use of punctuation marks. Finally, the teacher has to assign the students multiple assignments to gauge them on their understanding and to sharpen their skills for the final goal.

There are various methods of assessment that are applied in analyzing student performance. However, the strategy that is considered effective is one that measures performance against the set learning goals. In our case, we shall apply two strategies in assessing performance. One is written tests. This will be taken as both class and takeaway assignments. These tests will be considered as continuous assessment tests taken every week until the students perfect their skills. At the end of the learning period, there will be a final sit-in test that will be comprehensive and will be the final determiner of the student performance. The second strategy will be reading lessons in class for every student. These lessons will include reading out passages and identifying the grammatical errors present and correcting them. With every student participating, the teacher will be able to measure the level of understanding for each and devise the next course of action. This reading strategy will also determine whether there are students who require extra attention. It will also determine the frequency of the tests to be given.

In summary, evaluation of the instructional goals, the objectives, and student performance is a critical procedure in the learning process. This is both for the students and teachers. Instructional goals define the target to be achieved at the end of the topic. It is as a result of an identified need which is the gap between what the student already knows and what the teacher wants him to know. Objectives are means of achieving the goals. They are the expected outcomes. Assessment of student performance determines whether the objectives and, therefore, goal, has been achieved.

References

Cox, K., Imrie, B. W., & Miller, A. (2014). Student assessment in higher education: a handbook for assessing performance. Routledge.

Design, I. (2009). Instructional design. Retrieved January, 27, 2009.

Kubiszyn, T., & Borich, G. (2015). Educational testing and measurement. John Wiley & Sons Incorporated.