Inferring Objectives from Data

Collecting data on learners is the easy part. The hard part is turning that data into objectives, and it is here that most mistakes happen. Data does not announce its own meaning. A developer has to interpret it, and the same numbers can point in different directions.

How to infer objectives

Data is simply the information collected in an investigation, gathered through the various methods and tools, and it may take the form of short statements, tabulated figures, or lists. To get objectives from it, a developer:

1. Studies the data for its implications.
2. Compares the data with standards.
3. Draws suggestions about the possible needs a school can meet.

The importance of reading data for its implications cannot be overstated, because the same data can be interpreted in different ways. Take a real example: “60 percent of boys in the sixth grade of an elementary school read nothing outside school except their textbook lessons.” One group of teachers might read this as a need to teach the boys to read more rapidly or with greater satisfaction. Another group might read the same fact as a problem of reading interest, calling for objectives that broaden what the boys want to read. Same data, two different objectives.

Flashcard

What three steps turn learner data into objectives?

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Answer

Study the data for implications, compare it with standards, and draw possible needs

Data does not name objectives by itself. The same finding can imply different objectives, so reading it for its implications, against a standard, is the crucial step.

The lessons of interpretation

Three lessons follow from this. First, the norms of education that guide a teacher enter directly into how they interpret data; the standard a teacher holds shapes what gap they see. Second, data is genuinely useful for indicating gaps and chances that deserve attention when setting objectives. Third, and crucially, objectives are not automatically identified by collecting information about learners. The data informs the judgement; it does not make it.

Educational and non-educational needs

A final distinction protects a developer from setting objectives the school cannot meet. Not every need a study turns up is a need the school should, or can, address. Needs identified by investigation have two kinds of implication: educational and non-educational.

Take the finding that the student body suffers from malnutrition. It can mean two very different things:

1. Educational implication. If the malnutrition is due to a lack of adequate health habits or a poor attitude toward the importance of health, then it is an educational need. The school can change habits and attitudes, so this points to real objectives in health education.
2. Non-educational implication. If the malnutrition is due to a lack of adequate income, so families cannot afford the food required for an effective diet, then it is a social need that requires a social solution. No health lesson fixes a household’s income.

A developer has to ask which kind of need they are looking at. Setting an educational objective against a problem whose roots are social will not solve the problem and will waste the curriculum’s effort.

Flashcard

What is the difference between an educational and a non-educational need?

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Answer

Educational needs come from habits or attitudes the school can change; non-educational ones come from social conditions

Malnutrition from poor health habits is educational, and points to objectives. Malnutrition from inadequate income is a social need needing a social solution, not a curriculum objective.