Some thoughts on task analysis and objectives in educational psychology 1

Front‐end analysis, a performance‐problem‐solving technique, suggests that improved training is only one of the solutions to a problem. In education, where inadequate learning and poor motivation are symptoms of the problem, major curricular revisions of Educational Psychology courses may not constitute the best, solution. A task analysis of what expert teachers do suggests that the most relevant skills to be acquired belong at the principle‐applying level of Gagné's hierarchy, while most educational psychology courses tend to develop verbal repertoires meeting objectives of the sort “After reading what I have to say, the student will be able to tell me what I said.”; More attention to relevance of content and less to media and modes of presentation is now required.