Objectives for teaching

Although reaching agreement on the very general aims is quite crucial, it doesn&s;t get us very far pedagogically. Indeed, it is possible to consider agreement about general aims as a point of departure for the working out of teaching objectives. There would probably be disagreement about both the knowledge and the skills a good teacher should have. This chapter focuses on the taxonomies of educational objectives compiled by Bloom and others. There are two taxonomies from the Bloom stable in print: one concerned with objectives relating to the &s;cognitive domain&s;, roughly, concerned with &s;knowledge&s;; and one dealing with the &s;affective domain&s;, roughly, concerned with &s;feelings&s;. The chapter also examines the other dimension of student activity that been taken as evidence of learning and as an important part of educational objectives. Teachers can, of course, by involvement in the educational, political and social life of the community, make some contribution towards influencing these decisions.