A.B.C.D. Method

As teachers we must recognize that even it seems simple, it is a very difficult task to write learning objectives to the class perfectly for different reasons.  When I learned to do it I and based in my experience I used to write the objectives answering to these questions:  What? How? and What… for?, what I wanted my students can do and what I wanted they dominate.

The educative institutions in which I worked have given some training courses about methodology and the trainers have included the study of objectives briefly; however and based in the guidelines of this course organized by the University of Oregon,  I consider that to establish a learning objective implies a deep analysis in order to get excellence in teaching.

Certainly,   the A.B.C.D. method is new for me and it has all the components required for this purpose.   Let´s see:

Firstly we have to think in the students (Audience), who are they, where do they come from, what is their knowledge, their limitations and with this information we begin to set the objective.

Secondly, we have to establish what we want the learners be able to do (Behavior), the competences that we want they have and the skills that they may reach.

After that, it is the way on which the learning will take place (Condition), how we expect that this will occur and under which circumstances as Pennsylvania State Learning Design Community says.

Finally it is the (Degree) which refers to how well the students will do; of course what we want is that the learners respond to 100 % though it is a very difficult task.

It can be noticed that the first letters of the alphabet have relation with the first step of a learning community, also the easy that it is to remember the meaning of each word, so from now on what we have to do is to practice a lot.