Structure of the Theoretical Concept of Educational Goals: A Test of Factorial Validity.

How educational goals are conceptualized as a construct has implica tions for developing and evaluating educational programs and activities. The author used EQS 3.0 to test the factorial validity of 4 models of conceptualization of educa tional goals by conducting confirmatory factor analysis on empirical data collected from 1,134 education faculty members. The 4-factor model espoused by Goodlad fit the data best, and the participants wanted academic, vocational, personal, and social goals to be in relative harmony. Implications for educational theory, practice, and research are discussed. IN EDUCATIONAL THEORY AND PRACTICE, educational goals have been conceptualized in various ways. Some educators conceptualize educational goals as an all-inclusive, undifferentiated entity; others tend to view educational goals as the personal versus the social, or the academic versus the vocational; still others hold that the concept of educational goals includes personal, social, aca demic, and vocational elements. My purpose in the present study was to test the factorial validity of different conceptions of educational goals. The concept of educational goals has evolved in the history of educational thought. According to Walker and Soltis (1986), in The Republic the Greek philosopher Plato distinguished between the academic and vocational dimen sions of educational goals. The ancient Greeks believed that human beings had bodies that were animated and driven by a three-part soul. Each soul had an appetitive part, which expressed desires and needs and sought their fulfillment; a spirited part, which put aside unnecessary needs in the interests of self-protection and survival; and a rational part, which rose above both appetite and physical action to provide good judgment through reason. Therefore, according to Plato, educational goals were to provide academic education to people whose souls were dominated by rationality and to offer vocational education to those whose