ABCD Model : The Perfect Guideline in Formulating Objectives

I had learnt Bloom's taxonomy and also learnt the skills of formulating objectives in my academic course but there was no talk of ABCD approach in formulating objective which  I could learn in webskills course. All of us know that objective is the core part of any lesson plan that needs to be clear to guide the learners and to be guided oneself. Unless we set objectives, we don't know where, how, when we are approaching. But just merely to solve this problem, simply formulating objective without taking heed of the aspects that are needed to be incorporated just misguides us. The good objective guides to the right direction and to the same extent the spoiled objective guides us to the wrong direction.

What is ABCD approach then?
A - Audience
B - Behaviour
C - Condition
D - Degree of Mastery Needed
The ABCD method of writing objectives is an excellent starting point for writing objectives (Heinich, et al., 1996)


While formulating objectives, we need to take care of these points:

1. Audience – Who? Who are your learners?
2. Behavior – What? What do you expect them to be able to do? This should be an overt, observable behavior, even if the actual behavior is covert or mental in nature. If you can't see it, hear it, touch it, taste it, or smell it, you can't be sure your audience really learned it.
3. Condition – How? Under what circumstances or context will the learning occur? What will the student be given or already be expected to know to accomplish the learning?
4. Degree – How much? How much will be accomplished, how well will the behavior need to be performed, and to what level? Do you want total mastery (100%), do you want them to respond correctly 80% of the time, etc. A common (and totally non-scientific) setting is 80% of the time. (source : http://ets.tlt.psu.edu/learningdesign/objectives/writingobjectives/ )

Following these hints, we can formulate objectives of all three domains viz. psychomotor, cognitive and affective domain.

1. Psychomotor :Given dribbling skills in football game, the trainees of football will dribble at least for 50 seconds in the game they play with opponent teams.

2. Cognitive: Given a general background about the author, W. H. Auden and his poem, Night Mail, the students will be able to paraphrase four stanzas of the poem. 

3. Affective:"Given the opportunity to work in a team with several people of different races, the student will demonstrate an positive increase in attitude towards non-discrimination of race, as measured by a checklist utilized/completed by non-team members."

Any objective follow the principle of SMART. IT is an acronym for the characteristics of an objective.

SMART Model

•Specific

•Measurable 

•Attainable 

•Relevant

•Time - Limited

I hope this detail can to some extent help you to formulate objectives.

References:

http://ets.tlt.psu.edu/learningdesign/objectives/writingobjectives/

http://www.virginiaassessment.org/documents/2005%20Workshop%20Presentations/Writing%20Measurable%20Objectives.pdf

http://www.slideshare.net/ashleytan/writing-specific-instructionallearning-objectives-presentation