Sabine Moreau headed to the train station to pick up a friend. The station was to the north of her hometown in Hainault Erquelinnes, Brussels, but sixty-seven-year-old Sabine didn’t question her GPS directions, which took her south instead of north. She began to see signs for the German towns of Frankfurt and Cologne, but she continued to follow the route on the GPS. The trip became quite lengthy, forcing Sabine to refuel twice and even pull over for a couple of hours of sleep. Still, Sabine didn’t question her route. Eventually, Sabine entered Zagreb, the capital of Croatia, and she realized something was not right. Sabine’s friend at the station and her son also figured out there was a problem when she never showed up, and her son finally contacted the police. All Sabine had to say when she got home was, “I admit it’s a little weird, but I was distracted.”^[1]

In Australia, three Japanese tourists used a GPS to drive to North Stradbroke Island, which is just off the coast of Brisbane. The device didn’t take into account the nine miles of water that divided the island from the mainland, and the tourists kept following the directions even when the road turned to gravel, then thick mud, and eventually water lapping against the tires. They finally abandoned their car and walked back on foot, while their misadventure was witnessed by passengers on a passing ferry. The car was retrieved by a tow truck but was too damaged by the journey into the ocean to be repaired.^[2]

Robert Jones used his GPS on a drive to West Yorkshire, England. He kept driving as the road became steep and narrower. Eventually, his car bumped into a thin wire fence mere inches from a one-hundred-foot drop. Though he was able to safely exit, the car was balanced on the edge of a cliff, and it took a recovery team nine hours to retrieve it and haul it off. Jones explained, “It kept insisting the path was a road, so I just trusted it.”^[3]

Three women visiting Bellevue, Washington, were out late and couldn’t find their way back to their hotel. They asked their GPS for a reroute and drove down what they thought was a road that would take them back to the highway. The road was actually a boat launch, and they ended up in a lake. They were able to get out of the car, but the SUV was completely submerged by the time help arrived. A local fireman said, “We’ve seen sitcom parodies of something like this and to actually see it is surprising.”^[4]

A thirty-seven-year-old German truck driver used his GPS to guide him to a factory in Switzerland to deliver his cargo. He ignored the “no entry” warning signs and continued to follow the voice from his GPS. His truck became wedged in a cherry tree, stuck fast. Branches of the tree had to be chopped down to free the truck.^[5]

In designing a curriculum plan, it is essential to determine your final destination. The mission statement provides the ultimate purpose, but each element of the scope should also include specific goals related to the content. An intentional plan deliberately includes content for a specific reason. The goals and indicators clarify those reasons. Some curriculum resources focus on a subject, but they lack a clear rationale or goal and indicator statement, so they don’t always clearly lead toward a specific learning outcome.

Writing clear goals is a way of ensuring that you are heading in the right direction and that each element of the plan is aligned with your overall mission. Identifying indicators will help you know whether you’re on the right track. The GPS users in the previous examples set a direction, but they blindly followed the device and ignored the signs that they weren’t traveling where they wanted to go. If you plan teaching and learning situations that follow the principles related to the primary learning outcomes (PLOs) you identified in your goals and you construct clear indicators for each goal, you will be able to determine whether your plan is on track toward the accomplishment of your mission.

From Scope to Goals

Determining the scope of a curriculum plan is essential. It sets the boundaries for what learners will intentionally experience along the journey, the most significant concepts, ideas, principles, and topics intentionally taught within a particular ministry or course of study. They hold value in and of themselves, but a list alone will not lead students to achieve the essential change you envisioned when you identified the themes and topics that compose the ministry’s scope. Students won’t learn by looking at a list. Your curricular mission won’t be achieved simply because you have identified what needs “to be covered” in the plan.

Think about a jeweler whose mission is to create unique, beautiful, handcrafted jewelry that is meaningful to the customer, utilizing the highest-quality materials and expert craftsmanship. The jeweler sources the finest precious gems and desirable metals from around the world, purchasing only authentic stones and pure metals that will last a lifetime and potentially become heirlooms for generations to come. Her curated collection exceeds that of other jewelers in the region. Her showcases are full of exquisite, pure materials.

Customers are impressed by the array, but no jewelry pieces are on display in her shop. No samples exist, not even drawings of “what might be.” While some customers may have a personal vision of the heirloom they desire, the process of selecting each gem or metal and designing an exquisite piece is overwhelming. Most potential customers need the expertise of the jeweler to spark their imagination, but there are only raw materials available for viewing. For the jeweler, the customer is in charge of determining the desired change to the metals and gems, then she will handcraft the jewelry to their expectations. However, the customer is looking to the expert jeweler to help him or her see what can and should be changed to merge the metals and gems into something exquisite. The jeweler’s ultimate mission to craft unique jewelry is never fully realized. She has the materials to accomplish what she set out to do, but she has not successfully changed them into beautiful handcrafted pieces.

Gathering the essential raw materials for a curricular plan is necessary. This is the act of creating the scope. It is also just as crucial to determine why each theme, topic, and subtopic is part of the curricular journey. You must determine the learning you hope to see realized by those who engage in a study of each biblical topic and scriptural teaching in your scope. In chapter 5, you began this process as you read about three types of learning: cognitive, affective, and behavioral skills. For every topic and subtopic included in your plan, it is important to think about both the cognitive and affective learning you want students to achieve. In fact, both cognitive and affective outcomes should be associated with every topic on your list. As was mentioned in chapter 5, very few parts of your scope will directly lend themselves to psychomotor skill outcomes. While you may think of desired behavioral changes associated with the scope, almost all of the time, the changes envisioned will be due to cognitive skills (I understand how to share my faith) or high levels of commitment that result in changed behavior (I am sharing my faith because I am committed to sharing the gospel).

Identifying the type of learning you want students to experience and then describing the rationale or purpose for each component of the scope is the essence of goal setting. It specifies the desired learning outcomes for each aspect of a curricular scope. What changes are desired in the learner as a result of encountering each of the building blocks? What outcomes do you hope to see in the students’ lives as a result of studying each biblical truth, life-changing idea, or principle? Various terms are used to describe these learning outcomes. Some authors refer to them as objectives, others prefer the term instructional objectives, and still others call them aims. The most direct and universally understood term for a learning outcome is a goal, which is what will be used for the purposes of curriculum development within this book.

As you consider each topic, give careful thought to the associated desirable outcomes. You should be able to envision various types of learning for each topic and subtopic. For example, if prayer was a topic you identified, perhaps related to a larger theme of spiritual disciplines, you might want students to know the meaning of prayer, understand the importance of prayer, and be committed to a consistent prayer life. You will write separate goals for each of these outcomes because every written goal should focus on only one PLO.

While each goal is focused on one PLO, we know that learning doesn’t occur in isolation. When we gain an understanding of something, we often change our perception or value of the subject we are studying. For example, when students understand more about the health benefits of sleep or the risks associated with a lack of healthy sleep practices, they may commit to establishing a more consistent sleep routine, going to bed earlier, avoiding technology before turning in, or sleeping longer. Your PLO was cognitive, but in their understanding of the importance of sleep, some students also achieved an affective outcome. This overlap of learning outcomes is quite common and was introduced in chapter 5. It is the concept of diffusion of learning. For each learning experience, you will focus on teaching for change in one domain—cognitive, affective, or behavioral—but the learning becomes diffused or spread out into different areas.

Your comprehensive curriculum plan should contain several goals for each subtopic. Consider the topic of prayer that was previously referenced. You may want students to memorize a standard definition of prayer or specific biblical examples of prayer. Asking students to memorize specific content constitutes the knowledge level of cognitive learning. Additionally, you may want learners to understand the importance of prayer, to understand what the Bible teaches about prayer, to understand how they can develop the habit of prayer, or to understand the various types of prayer. Affective changes you desire as learning outcomes may be a commitment to a consistent prayer life, a devotion to praying for others, or a willingness to express their prayer concerns with others. As a Christian, you would not create any skill goals related to prayer. Some religions require specific motor skills or behaviors to accompany the practice of prayer, but this is not part of the biblical teaching on prayer. Prayer does not require any specific motor skills to validate the practice, which in its simplest definition is communion with God. While you would want your learners to be able to pray, that would be a cognitive outcome. In other words, if they understand how to pray, they are equipped with everything they need to be able to pray. The practice of prayer involves understanding and commitment, not developing specific motor skills.

Writing Goals

Just as a mission statement articulates the direction and outcome of a ministry or curriculum plan, a goal clearly identifies a purpose for each part of a curriculum’s scope. It answers questions such as, Why is it important for this to be included in the plan? How will it help the learner achieve the overall mission? What would we expect learners to know, understand, or value related to this topic? Each subtopic within a curriculum plan will likely have several purposes. It was included in the plan because it was determined to be essential to accomplishing the mission. The essential reasons will probably include both cognitive and affective outcomes. Everything in the scope will correspond with multiple learning outcomes.

Characteristics of a Goal

Goals that are written in proper form have at least four basic characteristics. First of all, a goal statement is a fairly broad description of what a student will learn. It doesn’t provide specific details about what a student will do to prove they have learned, but it gives an overall picture of the direction of the learning. For example, an acceptable goal written in proper form would not say, “Students will paraphrase the Ten Commandments.” This is too narrow. A broader description would focus on the reason for the paraphrase: “Students will understand the meaning of the Ten Commandments.”

Secondly, a goal statement always identifies what the student will learn, what the student will accomplish, and not what the teacher will do. Goals don’t describe what you will do to help students learn, such as “Explain to the students the meaning of jubilee within the Old Testament.” If you are going to explain the meaning of jubilee, it is probably because your goal is for your learners to understand the Old Testament meaning of jubilee.

The third characteristic of a goal is that it always identifies the PLO. A proper goal always communicates whether you want your students to achieve a cognitive, affective, or behavioral outcome. In reading the goal, it will be obvious whether the outcome is knowledge, understanding, value/commitment, or a psychomotor skill. This means that a goal written in proper form would not say, “Students will learn about…” The type of learning must be specified.

The final goal characteristic may seem obvious but is often overlooked. The goal must clearly identify the specific learning subject, and it should be something that could actually be achieved within the desired time frame. If the goal is written for one specific teaching session, the teacher must determine whether the goal could be accomplished in one session. This would not be an appropriate goal: “Students will understand prayer.” There is a subject included, but it is not specific enough for a session. It is simply too comprehensive to be achieved within any measurable time frame. What about prayer do you want them to understand? What is something students could grasp within a single session? If a goal is constructed for an entire unit of study, such as four sessions, the same question should be asked: Can this goal be accomplished within four learning sessions? (Note: It is appropriate to write a goal for an entire unit of study, but each of the sessions within the unit should also have separate learning goals.)

Writing Indicators

The first step toward bringing a curriculum plan to life is to write specific goals related to each topic. This focuses on the desired learning outcome. However, constructing goals alone won’t guarantee that students have learned. They provide direction for the learning experiences and determine the teacher’s intended outcomes, but they don’t provide any guidelines to evaluate whether the stated outcomes were met. When teachers take learning seriously, they identify a means to measure how well the goals have been achieved. Each written goal must include a specific action statement that will indicate that the goal has been accomplished. The terminology used for such a measurement can vary, but the simplest label and the one used in this resource is an indicator. As the label implies, it is an action on the part of the learner that indicates the achievement of the goal. It is up to the one constructing the curriculum to determine an appropriate indicator for each goal. It must, however, include a specific action that can be observed or measured.

Indicators and goals can be written as two separate statements, or they can be combined into one goal-indicator statement. A simple way of combining these two essential planning elements is by using the following formula:

Learners will ___ (this is your goal), and they will demonstrate achievement of this by ___ (this is your indicator).

Indicators identify the specific action learners will take to prove they have learned. It is up to the teacher or the curriculum writer to determine what this action will be. Indicators should be reasonable actions tied directly to the goals, simple proof that the goal has been achieved. If you can’t observe proof of learning, you can’t be confident that the goal has been met. If your goal is for students to know the books of the Bible, what is the simplest way they could indicate they have achieved the goal? You might say, Learners will know the books of the Bible, and they will indicate achievement of this by writing the names of all sixty-six books. What if the student can recite the names but can’t write them? Maybe you want to allow students to either write the names or recite them. The best way to frame the indicator might be Learners will know the books of the Bible, and they will indicate achievement of this by identifying all sixty-six books. This allows you the freedom for students to identify them on a list, by writing them out, or by reciting them. Knowing your learners, their ages, and their educational backgrounds will help you construct appropriate indicators.

Regardless of the proof you identify, it should indicate to you that the goal has been met. As previously mentioned, an indicator must include an action that can be demonstrated. If your goal is for students to know the books of the Bible, it would not be appropriate for an indicator to say, They will indicate achievement of this by memorizing the names of all sixty-six books. Why is this not an acceptable indicator? Because memorization can’t be observed. It is still a goal and not an indicator; memorizing is the same as knowing the books. An appropriate indicator would require proof that the students have memorized.

Types of Indicators

Indicators require a type of measurable activity, but they can come in a variety of forms. You might ask students to draw a picture of a concept, explain an idea, write a paraphrase, act out an example, choose something from a list, demonstrate a skill, or select concepts from a case study. We generally think of indicators according to three distinct categories. The first type of indicator is verbal. Words are used to indicate the achievement of a goal. They may be spoken or written, but the essence of the indicator is the use of words.

The second main category of indicator is discriminatory. Students indicate their learning by making choices or discriminating. This could include such actions as selecting appropriate terms or explanations from a list, watching a digital clip to identify positive or negative examples of specific concepts, choosing a picture that best represents a concept, or analyzing a case study to identify examples of a specific idea you want them to understand. Regardless of the actual indicator, if it calls for the learner to discriminate or make choices, it is a discriminatory indicator. Even if they choose words from among a variety of choices, the indicator is discriminatory and not verbal. A verbal indicator calls for students to prove their learning through the use of words, but when they are choosing or discriminating as proof of their learning, then they are completing a discriminatory indicator.

The final type of indicator is rarely used in discipleship curriculum because it is a motor indicator. It calls for learners to engage in a physical activity to prove they have learned, but the activity must be a demonstration of a motor skill goal. In other words, drawing a picture that illustrates the main teaching of a Bible story involves a physical activity, but it isn’t a motor indicator. It doesn’t prove mastery of a particular psychomotor skill. It represents illustrating ideas or words or may even represent choosing which ideas to illustrate. What it doesn’t do is demonstrate the acquisition of a motor skill. Motor indicators are only tied to psychomotor skills. If the goal is for learners to be able to shingle a roof properly, then they could prove the achievement of that goal by doing something like nailing shingles on a roof in an acceptable fashion. Knowing the three key types of indicators can be helpful for the teacher who is trying to identify the proof they will require to determine whether learners have accomplished a particular goal.

Indicators include information about how well a student will have to perform to show they have accomplished the learning goal. If the goal is for students to know the books of the Bible, would you be satisfied if the learners could recite fifty-three of the sixty-six books? What if they were able to recognize sixty-four of them on a list but couldn’t identify the last two? If your goal is for students to understand the benefits of prayer, how many benefits would you want them to explain in order to meet your learning goal? This “how well” information should generally be part of a learning indicator. However, it isn’t always necessary. How well a student must perform might be generally understood, as in the case of knowing the books of the Bible. If learners can’t identify all sixty-six books, it is obvious they don’t know the books of the Bible, at least not all of them, which is what the goal implies.

If an indicator does include information about how well a student must perform, then the amount or standard must be specific. It isn’t acceptable to simply say a student should know “a few concepts” or “most of” something. The key benefit of identifying how well a student needs to perform is that it can be a signal to the teacher that further emphasis on a topic might need to take place. It provides a measuring stick to reference how well students have learned. Instead of arriving at the end of a session wondering if the students genuinely understand the concepts you intended them to learn, when the indicator includes information on how well the student must perform, then you can more easily determine whether the goal has been met at an acceptable level.

Indicators may describe any special circumstances under which a student will demonstrate achievement of the goal. This characteristic is used less often in the context of discipleship learning. It is beneficial to know, however, as it provides specific conditions for the student’s demonstration of learning. It may be a time limit, for instance, or the materials a student will have to work with to demonstrate learning. Will they be given a list of characteristics to explain or descriptions of biblical accounts to place in some type of order, or will they be allowed to work with a partner or in teams?

Affective Indicators

Affective goals are those focused on heart change. When the learning outcome is intended to elicit a commitment or value adopted by the student, then an affective goal and indicator are required. These types of goals and indicators are central to the type of learning one hopes a disciple will embrace on the journey toward spiritual growth. The difficulty for the teacher is in accurately assessing this type of learning. The first characteristic of every indicator is to identify the action the teacher will require to prove the learners’ achievement of a specific goal. Obviously, it isn’t always possible to recognize when a learner has made a genuine commitment or come to value a particular Christian ideal. How can one know if a learner is committed to sharing the gospel with lost friends or family members? How can a teacher be certain that a student values the Bible or being part of the Church? The answer is that no one can ever be certain about the values or heart commitments of another person. The importance of evaluating the attainment of an affective goal is no less important than measuring cognitive change, but it is always imprecise, and the outcomes can never be accurately verified. That doesn’t mean that the teacher leaves affective learning up to chance or ignores the importance of determining indicators, however.

The Bible teaches the importance of affective learning and often provides examples of the evidence seen in the life of a disciple when this type of heart change is genuine. For example, Christians are called to love others, and genuine love is indicated by the following:

Love is patient, love is kind. It does not envy, it does not boast, it is not proud. It does not dishonor others, it is not self-seeking, it is not easily angered, it keeps no record of wrongs. Love does not delight in evil but rejoices with the truth. It always protects, always trusts, always hopes, always perseveres.

1 Corinthians 13:4–7, NIV

A goal might focus on loving others, demonstrated by any of the previous actions. The actions would be indicators but would still need to be written in such a way that they could be observed. What might demonstrate kindness, patience, or humility?

Belief in God is an example of an essential affective change in the life of a genuine disciple. Scripture teaches that even faith must be demonstrated by outward actions. Values, beliefs, and commitments are always indicated by observable behaviors:

What good is it, my brothers and sisters, if someone claims to have faith but has no deeds? Can such faith save them? Suppose a brother or a sister is without clothes and daily food. If one of you says to them, “Go in peace; keep warm and well fed,” but does nothing about their physical needs, what good is it? In the same way, faith by itself, if it is not accompanied by action, is dead.

But someone will say, “You have faith; I have deeds.”

Show me your faith without deeds, and I will show you my faith by my deeds. You believe that there is one God. Good! Even the demons believe that—and shudder.

James 2:14–19, NIV

Affective indicators are written in a unique way. Instead of precisely determining what action a student should take to prove learning, teachers select actions that they would be most likely to observe and then offer opportunities for the student to reflect those actions. The teacher or curriculum writer must determine an appropriate observable action that would indicate the student has made the commitment or adopted the value or belief stated in the goal.

These are often referred to as a representative response. What action might the teacher observe that would represent the type of affective change they hope to accomplish through their teaching? Because they are less certain, the indicators use a slightly different format than those used for cognitive or behavioral outcomes. The following is one format for writing a goal and indicator for an affective outcome:

Learners will ___ (this is your goal), and they will demonstrate achievement of this by doing such things as ___ (this is your indicator, a representative response).

Here is a sample of an affective goal and indicator using a representative response:

Learners will commit to sharing their faith with their lost friends, and they will demonstrate achievement of this by doing such things as describing a conversation they have had with a lost friend about their need for salvation.

The teacher would plan for a time during the session when students are invited to share their personal experience of sharing their faith with a lost friend. Of course, for a variety of reasons, some students may exaggerate their faith-sharing experiences, and some may choose not to talk about actual faith conversations. It is up to the teacher to gain a sense of whether their students are committed to sharing the gospel. If students don’t talk about their experiences but have begun to invite their lost friends to a Bible study or other ministry events, the teacher may gain some level of confidence that the goal is being achieved even though the specific indicator has not been met.

Consider another example:

Learners will develop a heart for the poor, and they will demonstrate achievement of this by doing such things as volunteering to participate in a ministry project with those in a local homeless shelter.

The teacher would presumably plan an opportunity for students to participate in a ministry project at the homeless shelter or make them aware of opportunities that exist within the Church or community. As in the previous example, students may sign up to participate in such a ministry project for a variety of reasons, and some students might not sign up because their schedule won’t allow them to volunteer on a particular date. Either way, the teacher can never be sure whether the students have developed a heart for the poor, but they have determined a representative response that will help her gain a reasonable determination of whether the students are growing in their compassion for the poor in the community.