The effect of behavioral and non-behavioral objectives on achievement in introductory college geology

The primary purpose of this study was to test the relative effectiveness of behavioral and non-behavioral objectives. The behavioral objectives attempted to specify to the student what was to be learned and how such learning was to be demonstrated. The non-behavioral form, called outline objectives, consisted of listings of terms and concepts in hierarchical groups.

A second purpose was to assess the attitudes and preferences of the subjects with respect to types of objectives.

Sixty-two students in four introductory geology classes were used as subjects. Two intact classes were randomly assigned to an experimental group (32 students) and two to a comparison group (30 students). Multivariate Analysis of seven demographic variables (age, high school rank, geology pretest, I.Q. score, vocabulary, comprehension, and reading rate) was used to establish the equivalence of both groups.

Throughout the first quarter the experimental group received weekly units of behavioral objectives whereas the comparison group received weekly units of outline objectives. Subjects were tested at approximately two-week intervals and were given a comprehensive final exam.

Analysis of Variance showed that the experimental group achieved significantly higher on two tests. Differences on all other tests were in favor of the experimental group but were below the 0.05 level of significance. Multivariate Analysis indicated that the overall achievement of the experimental group was significantly higher than that of the comparison group.

During the second quarter, all students were exposed to both types of objectives. An attitude scale administered to assess student preferences revealed almost unanimous support for the use of objectives. Given a choice of behavioral or outline objectives, a majority of subjects indicated a preference for the outline form and appeared to view the outline form as significantly more useful.

It was concluded that the use of behavioral objectives was supported by this study but that students seemed to prefer the outline form. Further research should focus on the development of more effective variations of objectives and on case studies to determine which individuals make most efficient use of each type of objective.