The cognitive teaching objective refers to the specific knowledge a student needs to equip himself with in concern to his studies which will build his intellectual abilities. This objective is divided into six branches which direct both the teacher and the students: knowledge, understanding, application, analysis of the content, synthesis and evaluation. In this way, a student should be able to remember the information taught by the instructor, understand it and apply it to another scenario or problem which requires the use of that particular form of information. In addition, the student should be able to explain the information and use it to formulate another idea. Finally, he can critique the information by applying other points derived from his studies to weigh its benefits and disadvantages.
The affective teaching objective brings forward the aspect of how people apply their emotions in their studies. It includes values, personal attitudes, appreciation, motivational factors and beliefs. It is divided into categories: receipt and response to information, additional value, organization of the values and their internalization. This objective points to a student's ability to willingly listen and participate in the process of acquisition of knowledge and create a sense of value for a certain aspect. Finally, he can incorporate all the values he holds into his general life and use them as an influencing factor in his daily activities.
The psychomotor objective of teaching refers to the level of skills attained from the studies that a student has which allows her to work with other tools, machines and equipment. This phase usually entails physical movement and is divided into seven subdivisions: perception, ability to act, initial trial, mechanism, professional performance, adaptation to the mechanisms and formulation of an original idea. This means that by using the acquired knowledge, the student can combine her senses and general abilities in practical skills and following the initial stage of learning, the student polishes her skills through practice and acquisition of new techniques. Finally, she can come up with new ideas to improve on her skills. The instructor determines the success of this objective through observing and measuring the performance level of the student.
The three teaching objectives have three important components which provide the basis of facilitating the resulting standard of performance from students, including condition, performance and criterion. The condition component refers to the facilities which will be provided to the student, such as equipment and machines, and in what environment. The performance component describes the knowledge and skills the student should grasp, while the criterion component describes the expected standard of work the student should muster by the end of a given period of time.