Book Review

By Dr. S. Saiduddin

Norman E. Gronlund (2000). How to Write and Use Instructional Objectives (6 th Edition, 126 pages). Upper Saddle River, N.J.

Classroom instruction when accompanied by clearly written instructional objectives provide the student the necessary guidance in learning and help the instructor in assessing the outcome and therefore aids in overall teaching, learning and assessment. For the student, instructional objectives provide an additional resource in associating the instructional activity with the intended outcomes. Written instructional objectives also aid in peer-evaluation of instruction.

This book is a step by step guide for writing instructional objectives. The author provides rationale for providing the student with written instructional objectives. However, this book does not contain any data evaluating the benefits of written learning objectives in classroom instruction.

This book is divided into three parts. The first part provides definitions and justification and how to go about writing instructional objectives. It describes the basics of constructing the statements for learning objectives. The second part presents guidance on writing objectives for different levels of instruction/learning, such as basic comprehension, analytical thinking, problem-solving skills etc. In part three the author presents use of instructional objectives in different levels of assessments.

Overall, the material presented in the book is enlightening and useful in writing instructional objectives in many teaching/learning activities.