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educators adopt the curriculum and know how to complete the necessary educa-
tional program. It is also the objectives that provide the framework on which learner
and curriculum evaluation will be constructed.
Objectives relate to a curriculum goal but they are designed to determine exactly
what the learners will be able to do at the end of the curriculum. Objectives are
stated in terms of precise, observable, and measurable parameters. They must be
realistically attainable during the curriculum. As a guide to creating curriculum
objectives, five basic elements should be considered:
- Who
- Will do
- How much or how well
- Of what
- By when
Some examples of objectives that could be associated with a urology curriculum
include:
- A first year urology resident will be able to demonstrate a testicular and digital
rectal examination of a male patient, meeting criteria on a checklist as judged by
a trained observer by the end of their first 6 months of training - A second year urology resident will be able to perform a cystoscopy, place a
ureteral guidewire into the upper urinary tract, and insert an indwelling ureteral
stent satisfactorily by evaluation of at least two urology faculty observing the
resident in two separate clinical cases
Specific measurable objectives permit refinement of curricular content and guide
the selection of appropriate educational and evaluation methods. Goals and objec-
tives should be determined by specialty experts or dictated by required competency
metrics established by certifying bodies. Objectives usually fall within three major
domains including knowledge, affective or attitudinal, and motor or psychomotor
skills. Knowledge can encompass factual knowledge to higher levels of function
such as problem solving and clinical decision-making. Attitudes, values, beliefs,
biases, emotions, and role expectations are also important components of medical
and surgical training objectives. Surgeons’ technical skills and procedural objec-
tives are paramount to our daily clinical practice, but equally important are behav-
ioral objectives such as history taking, physical examination, interpersonal
communication, professionalism, and record keeping.
Bloom’s taxonomy defines the cognitive domain by level of complexity and
abstraction. It is clear that advancing cognitively requires movement from the broad
base of these skills to the more discriminatory peak of the triangle.
E.M. McDougall and B. Schwartz