There is compelling evidence for the importance of goals in enhancing performance. Students learn best when they have an understanding of where they are at, where they are going, what it will look like when they are there, and where they will go to next.
Locke and Latham, 1990
Locke and Latham, 1990
3.1 Establish challenging learning goals
Set learning goals that provide achievable challenges for students of varying abilities and characteristics.
It cannot be assumed that learners will set appropriate goals to guide their work, but the answer should not be to provide goals for students. Such a short-term remedy does little to develop new skills or strategies in any learner. It is therefore important that learners develop the skill of effective goal setting. The UDL framework embeds graduated scaffolds for learning to set personal goals that are both challenging and realistic.
Assessment for learning improves student learning and helps students become independent, self‐monitoring learners (Black & Wiliam, 1998; Clarke, 2008). Teachers play an essential role in supporting students to develop these skills by:
Goals must be specific, represent short term outcomes and considered difficult to achieve. When teaching:
Use a four step process developed by Gregory, Cameron and Davies (1997). Firstly, give students two exemplars and ask what was done well and what needs improvement. Discuss which one is best and why.
Support strategy and planning development
Once a goal is set, effective learners and problem-solvers plan strategies , for reaching their goal. To help learners plan strategically a variety of pathways are required , such as cognitive “speed bumps” that will prompt them to stop and think, graduated scaffolds that help them actually implement strategies or engagement in decision-making with competent mentors. When I am teaching:
Source: Adapted from CAST (2011). Universal Design for Learning Guidelines version 2.0. Wakefield, MA: Author.
Set learning goals that provide achievable challenges for students of varying abilities and characteristics.
It cannot be assumed that learners will set appropriate goals to guide their work, but the answer should not be to provide goals for students. Such a short-term remedy does little to develop new skills or strategies in any learner. It is therefore important that learners develop the skill of effective goal setting. The UDL framework embeds graduated scaffolds for learning to set personal goals that are both challenging and realistic.
- Provide prompts and scaffolds to estimate effort, resources, and difficulty
- Provide models or examples of the process and product of goal-setting
- Provide guides and checklists for scaffolding goal-setting
- Post goals, objectives, and schedules in an obvious place
Assessment for learning improves student learning and helps students become independent, self‐monitoring learners (Black & Wiliam, 1998; Clarke, 2008). Teachers play an essential role in supporting students to develop these skills by:
- ensuring that students have a clear understanding of what they are learning and what successful learning looks like;
- modelling descriptive feedback, self-assessment, and goal setting; and
- providing opportunities to practice these skills, first with guidance and support and then independently.
- Identify knowledge and skills from the curriculum expectations
- Learning goals must be incremental and scaffolded
- Expressed in language meaningful to students
- Goals need to be specific and observable
- Stated from the student's perspective
- Share and clarify the learning goals
- Provide students with an organizer they can use to record their ideas about the learning goal as the learning evolves (e.g., What are you learning today? Which activity(ies) helped you most in learning? How does what you are learning connect with what you already know and can do?)
- Use success criteria (e.g., rubrics)- (Used in Art)
- Help students understand the criteria
- Set individual learning goals
- Provide opportunities for self- and peer-assessment
- Provide descriptive feedback
Goals must be specific, represent short term outcomes and considered difficult to achieve. When teaching:
- Provide prompts and scaffolds to estimate effort, resources, and difficulty.
- Provide models or examples of the process and product of goal-setting.
- Provide guides and checklists for scaffolding goal-setting.
- Post goals, objectives, and schedules in an obvious place.
Use a four step process developed by Gregory, Cameron and Davies (1997). Firstly, give students two exemplars and ask what was done well and what needs improvement. Discuss which one is best and why.
- Brainstorm
- Sort and categorise
- Make and post a t-chart
- Add, revise, refine
Support strategy and planning development
Once a goal is set, effective learners and problem-solvers plan strategies , for reaching their goal. To help learners plan strategically a variety of pathways are required , such as cognitive “speed bumps” that will prompt them to stop and think, graduated scaffolds that help them actually implement strategies or engagement in decision-making with competent mentors. When I am teaching:
- Incorporate prompts to show and explain your work
- incorporate prompts and time to “stop and think” before acting.
- Model think-aloud of the process.
- Provide checklists and project planning templates for understanding the problem, setting up prioritization, sequences, and schedules of steps.
- Provide guides for breaking long-term goals into reachable short-term objectives. The goal wont be unreachable if it is broken down into smaller ones to achieve the end goal.
Source: Adapted from CAST (2011). Universal Design for Learning Guidelines version 2.0. Wakefield, MA: Author.