Keywords

Instructional goals, goal taxonomies, learning goals, instructional objectives, skill learning, skill

Abstract

Two taxonomies of instructional goals (Bloom, Gagné) are revisited, asking why the design community at large treats them as “received wisdom”, while their authors and colleagues treat(ed) them as unfinished business and continued to modify them. The question is raised as to the possibility of finding a resolution of their differences. The thesis is advanced that both consist of lower-level performances subordinate to and leading to skilled performance, which may supply a unifying principle. The proposition is advanced that we should look for ways of reconciling and integrating their differences. Using skilled performance as the superclass of both is suggested as a means of achieving this.