Recall-Knowledge Objectives

Teachers can categorize an objective as Recall Knowledge if they consider that students demonstrate mastery of the objective when they are able to retrieve from their long-term memories the specific information (we will call it target information) that is appropriate for the objective, and to retrieve it without any assistance from the teacher, from other students, or from any other source. Target information is usually verbal, visual, or verbal and visual.

Here are examples of objectives that can be categorized as Recall Knowledge because they, more or less, identify or suggest the target information that students should be able to retrieve from their long-term memories.

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POSSIBLE RECALL-KNOWLEDGE OBJECTIVES

Language

1. Be able to spell the words in Lesson 21.

2. Know that the verb move in the sentence Green lizards move across the sidewalk, is less descriptive than the verbs creep, crawl, scurry or slink.

Mathematics

1. Have memorized the basic addition facts.

2. Be able to define the term hypotenuse.

3. Describe the steps in converting fractions into percentages.

Science

1. Explain the spiders have eight legs and insects have six legs.

2. Know the speeds of light and sound.

3. Be able to point out on a model of a frog the names of the major internal parts, and to describe the function of each.

Social Studies

1. Be able to name the three branches of the federal government in the United States, and to explain the power and responsibility of each.

2. Name the countries of Europe and show their locations on a blank, outline map of Europe.

3. Describe the major natural resources found in Canada.

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Unfortunately, many of the objectives that are given in curriculum guides, textbooks, and even performance standards are worded so ambiguously that it is not clear to which category of instructional practice they should be assigned. For example, this objective appears in a social studies text for the sixth grade. Does it refer to Recall Knowledge or to Application Knowledge?

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RECALL-KNOWLEDGE OBJECTIVE

Students should understand that capital, adequate institutions, such as corporations, and skilled labor force, and trained managers, are necessary in the building of a successful industrial nation.

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If the objective is categorized as Recall Knowledge, then this would appear to be the target information that students should be able to retrieve from their long-term memories.

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TARGET INFORMATION FOR THE OBJECTIVE

The four things that are necessary in the building of a successful industrial nation are: (1) capital, (2) adequate corporations, (3) adequately skilled labor fource, and (4) adequately trained managers.

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And if the objective is categorized as Recall Knowledge, then this is the kind of question that might be used in an assessment task intended to cue students’ retrieval of that target information.

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ASSESSMENT TASK FOR RECALL-KNOWLEDGE OBJECTIVE

What are the four things that are necessary in the building of a successful industrial nation?