Question 5

Kofi Annan, the Secretary-General of the United Nations, has been asked to teach a one-day course on how to handle international crises through UN intervention. His team of instructional designers creates two ten-item lists of learning objectives. Each list covers the same content, but utilizes different styles of objectives. Mr. Annan is asked to select the style of learning objectives that he feels will be most beneficial.

If Mr. Annan called you for your advice, which style of objective would you recommend? The Secretary-General will assume that your recommendation will create the best learning results. The following two choices are  representative examples of the two styles presented to Mr. Annan.

A. "You will understand that five countries hold veto power on the security counsel and so any actions taken by the UN must be at least marginally acceptable to those five nations."
B. "You will be able to recall the following concept with 95% accuracy when asked to do so on a test given to you two days after the end of the class: Five countries hold veto power on the security counsel and so any actions taken by the UN must be at least marginally acceptable to those five nations."
C. Neither of the above learning objectives will create learning benefits.