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Strategies for Using Goals to Increase Motivation
There are several different types of goals. Goals can be short-term, proximal goals, or long-term, distal goals. Ideally, a student’s short-term goals should provide steps that work toward their long-term goals. Students can also have a mastery orientation where they “define academic success as learning something new” or a performance orientation where they “demonstrate their competence relative to others” (Rowell & Hong, 2013, p. 160). Mastery goals align with the growth mindset and foster internal motivation, whereas performance goals align with the fixed mindset and do not set the stage for internal motivation. Setting short-term mastery goals with frequent opportunities for feedback helps students align their actions with their vision and the results they are hoping for. Classrooms that focus on mastery emphasize effort and give students room to make mistakes, learn, and grow instead of focusing on end results, like grades and test scores.
Everyone has had the experience of setting a goal for themselves and then not getting around to it. This can happen for several reasons. • The goal is not specific enough. You don’t know how to start or how to determine whether you have achieved it. • The goal is too big, and you cannot accomplish it right now. • You don’t have a plan or a system in place to achieve the goal.
Self-assessing allows students to develop an awareness of their current abilities by evaluating themselves on their performance, knowledge, and their actions and attitudes about learning. It can happen during the planning phase and when students are evaluating outcomes. This awareness of strengths and weaknesses makes students capable of setting applicable learning goals. Goals describe the results you want to achieve from learning and are important to the learning process because they guide you in planning, deciding what to direct your effort toward, and determining when to pay attention. Setting clear, specific, and doable goals for learning has a positive effect on student performance in the classroom (National Academies of Sciences, Engineering, and Medicine, 2018).
Intentionally planning to learn by setting goals affects the effort students put toward their work in the classroom more than any other strategy. Goal setting can determine what students do to learn in the classroom because they gain self-efficacy (or a belief in their own ability) to change their behavior and produce results when they successfully set and work toward short-term goals (Akamatsu et al., 2019).
Setting Goals for Metacognitive Strategy Use (Grades K–12)
Students can begin to think about goal setting by looking at their metacognitive strategies inventory (see figure 1.4, page 26) and consider turning red or yellow strategy areas into goals. This activity offers a way for students to analyze the metacognitive strategies they are not currently using and set goals to begin using strategies to increase their learning. Do this activity at the beginning of the year and then once every nine weeks or four times throughout the year. This activity helps students become aware of metacognitive strategies and then focus on which strategies they are currently using and which strategies they need to work on.
INSTRUCTIONS
Have students find their filled-out metacognitive strategies inventory that they placed in their strategies notebook. Remind them of the strategies for their grade level. Read each strategy aloud and prompt students to look at how they rated themselves on their use of that strategy.
See the following sections to learn how to adapt this activity to different grade ranges. As they are looking at their inventory, ask students to consider the following: What strategies did I color red or yellow? Where is there room to grow? Does my goal relate to a strategy that I am not using or that I do not use consistently?
EARLY ELEMENTARY (GRADES K—2)
The teacher helps all students work on the first five statements on the metacognitive strategies inventory by presenting them as restated goals. The picture for that strategy should appear next to the goal to help the student understand. The teacher could laminate and affix the goals to each student’s desk. Alternately, the teacher could give students an object associated with the goals to keep on their desk, like a light bulb eraser for paying attention to their understanding; plastic glasses to put on when it is time to implement their strategies for focus; a brain-shaped stress ball to remind them to think about what they already know; a box of crayons to draw pictures; or a special pen or marker for checking their work. This helps students see goals are something you choose to carry out with your actions each day.
The teacher has students complete the following process using the metacognitive strategies inventory (see figure 1.4, page 26). • Write down all the strategies that are red (or the student never uses). For example: I create my own examples. • Write down all the strategies that are yellow (or the student sometimes uses). For example: I think about what I want to learn, set goals, and make a plan before I begin working. • Choose one strategy to work on from the red category (or yellow if you do not have any red). For example: I create my own examples. • Turn this statement into a goal by using the following sentence stem. Example: When I am learning, I will . • Students should keep their metacognitive strategy goals somewhere they can see them each day. They can draw an illustration next to their goal to help remind them what to do. Example: When I am learning, I will create my own examples.
Students ask themselves, “What process can I put in place to remind myself to work on this goal each day? Who can I tell about this goal that will hold me accountable? What evidence will I have that I am accomplishing or not accomplishing this goal?”
Setting SMART Goals (Grades K–12)
This activity is a process for setting a goal to ensure the resulting goal is possible to monitor and achieve. To achieve a goal, students must fully understand what they are working on and when they will achieve it. As discussed in chapter 1 (page 9), goals should be SMART (Conzemius & O’Neill, 2014; Doran, 1981). • Strategic and specific: What will you do? What are you trying to achieve? • Measurable: How will you know when you achieve your goal? • Attainable: Is this goal achievable in the next two to six months? Do you currently have the skills to reach this goal? • Results oriented: Is this goal important enough to you to put work into achieving it? • Time bound: Does your goal have a specific deadline?
SMART goals help students create short-term mastery and growth-oriented goals. These goals offer tangible rewards and are easier to stick with, thus encouraging students to keep setting goals for themselves.
INSTRUCTIONS
At the beginning of a new school year, have students set goals based on their vision and values. In each class and at the start of each grading period, students set goals to show where they are going next. Students set goals for lessons in a particular subject or at the beginning of each new unit when they are learning something new. Students should update goals after receiving feedback or when they are asked the question, “Now what?”
Ask students why they don’t always achieve the goals they set as a way to introduce the preceding activity and summary information about goal setting (see page 53). What are some things that get in the way of achieving goals?
EARLY AND UPPER ELEMENTARY (GRADES K—5)
Encourage students to ask themselves, “What small steps can I take right now to align my actions with the vision on my vision board?” Students practice setting goals as a class or in groups. Model and introduce goal setting and how to write an achievable, trackable goal. Students in third and fourth grades can then practice writing their own goals.
MIDDLE SCHOOL AND HIGH SCHOOL (GRADES 6—12)
Have students reflect on their vision and dreams on their vision board, then brainstorm small steps they can take right now to align their actions with their larger vision and values. They go through the following SMART process to make sure their short-term goal will work (see figure 2.5, page 56). Teachers go through the example in figure 2.5 before students create their own goals. Students put goals in their strategies notebook behind their vision board or in a place where they are visible daily.
SMART Goals Strategic and Specific
I want to turn in my assignments on time.
Measurable
I will have no zeros for missing work and will turn in 100 percent of my work.
Attainable
Yes, because it is the beginning of a new nine-week grading period. Over the last nine weeks, I turned in 80 percent of my assignments.
Results Oriented
Yes, this is important to me because I would like to improve my grades, and not handing in work lowers my grades.
Time Bound
I would like to achieve this by the end of this nine-week grading period.
My Goal: I will turn in 100 percent of my assignments on time this nine-week grading period.
Source: Adapted from Doran, 1981.
FIGURE 2.5: SMART goals.
Visit go.SolutionTree.com/studentengagement for a free reproducible version of this figure.
Students ask themselves, “Have I placed my goal somewhere I will see it daily? Is this goal specific, measurable, attainable, results oriented, and trackable or time bound? What’s next once I achieve this goal?”
A goal gives students something specific to focus on, but they will have trouble achieving their goal if they keep their same habits. To change habits, students must create a new process or way of doing things. Prompt students to think about what they need to change from what they are currently doing to achieve this goal.
For example, if a student is failing English because they have ten missing assignments in the last nine weeks, the student may set the goal, “I will complete and turn in 100 percent of my assignments on time for the next nine weeks.” It is a nice first step to set this goal, but if
nothing changes, the student will have trouble accomplishing it. Behaviors like writing assignments down in a planner, estimating how much time each assignment will take, and setting aside time each day to complete work and study will help the student achieve their goal on time. See the following upper elementary through high school section for additional steps for this goal process example. Many times, students quit working on a goal when they become frustrated at not seeing immediate improvement. If teachers prompt students to focus on the process instead of the goal, they will feel successful when taking the small steps each day toward the larger goal. Having certain items to complete each day helps form habits a student can stick to, even through minor setbacks.
Establishing a goal-achievement process is one way to make sure your actions line up with your goals. Students establish a goal-achievement process by asking what they need to change about their daily habits or routines to achieve this goal. The process becomes like a checklist. If students are completing the actions in their process, they are working toward their goal.
Break the new goals into steps to elaborate and make the metacognitive process of goal achievement visible. Doing this helps students understand that achieving their goals is often about the ways they choose to spend their time each day.
INSTRUCTIONS
After presenting the example and summary of this activity, ask students what they need to change about the way they are currently doing things to reach their goal. What would the process of reaching their goal look like? What are the steps? Students then write their goal at the top of a blank page or worksheet and come up with a series of steps (or changes) to help them work toward their goal, which they place in each box. You will find an example worksheet in the upper elementary through high school section that follows.
If you want to laminate this figure, have students use the stars in each box to check off the process step as they complete it each day. This allows students to self-monitor their progress toward achieving their goal and reflect on what might be going wrong if they are not.
EARLY ELEMENTARY (GRADES K—2)
Students practice modeling a goal-achievement process as a class or in groups to introduce the idea that to work toward something big, they must take positive goal-oriented actions each day.
Once students are used to a goal-achievement process for their personal goals, consider using a goal-achievement process for student projects. The end goal of the project is at the top with the due date, and each box contains one step toward completing the project (see figure 2.6, page 58). Each step has its own due date. Determine the deadlines for each small piece of the project by starting at the final due date and working backward. The teacher should model this for students before asking them to try it on their own.
