Moore, K.D. (2009). Setting Goals and Objectives. Effective Instructional Strategies: From

Theory to Practice, (2nd Edition). Los Angeles, CA: Sage Publications. 60-90.

In Chapter 3, Moore focuses on curriculum, particularly the important role that standards, learning objectives, taxonomies, and backward design (or backwards planning) play. Interestingly enough, much of the information presented in this chapter was very similar to the information I received over the summer during my six week crash course in teaching. From what little I have gathered from the text, much of this focus on standards derives from federal laws, particularly the No Child Left Behind Act. When it was enacted, this landscape-changing federal law essentially mandated that states be accountable for student learning. In other words, states ere required to develop their own accountability systems for ensuring that their schools were aligned to the appropriate standards. Having said that, this is all I was able to gather from the text about the impact of NCLB. What Moore fails to address is how wide and far-reaching NCLB’s impact has been. I am particularly curious to know how it continues to influence the education sphere in contemporary society.

On an unrelated note, what I found most interesting about this chapter was a specific portion of the text that spoke about the three domains of learning. The first was cognitive domain which, in my opinion, receives the most attention in the field of education. The second and third domains were affective and psychomotor respectively. From looking at the diagram that Moore provides of the three domains on page 81, it appears that the three domains are to be viewed as three equally juxtaposed circles. While this may be the case in theory, I do not believe this is the case in practice. From my limited experience as a teacher, the affective and psychomotor domains do not receive a lot of attention even though it is arguable that they should. How a student feels toward a certain subject or school in general is just as important to learning as academic content. Furthermore, although less publicized, I can see how the psychomotor domain plays a significant role in the sphere of education. For things as simple as solving a math problem in the same order and same format over and over again or having students go through the same morning procedure every day, you are helping students build up the necessary psychomotor skills they need to discipline themselves as students. Without this muscular discipline or overall sense of routine, the students would be less like to succeed as independent learners when they reach higher-level courses. Therefore, from reading this chapter, I’ve realized that I’ve probably paid too much attention to the cognitive domain and not enough time to the affective and psychomotor domains. While I may have implicitly done so when designing my classroom management, I realize that I should be more overt about it. Doing so would only serve to benefit my students in the long run.