A brief history of educational objectives

Résumé (en anglais)

This article traces a history of educational objectives taking into account different types of objectives as well as different outlooks. The paper is constructed with the avowed aim to help readers understand some of the controversies regarding the use of “objective” as a technical term. It introduces recommendations for the specification of objectives (attention is paid to the notion of levels of specification and to various formulations of the concept of behavioural objectives) and it discusses problems associated with the status of objectives. Another purpose of this article is to examine structural relationships between objectives, the logic of intentions expressed by an objective, and the political status of statements of objectives. The final part deals with the usefulness of objectives in curriculum development, in lesson planning, in instructional design, in evaluation, and in the process of communicating to students.