GOALS OBJECTIVES

Project Objectives

Students will write long-term and short-term goals.
Students will apply goal achieving strategies.
Students will evaluate their goals.
Students will develop a goal folder.

Project Research

Goal setting as a means to increase productivity, effectiveness, and success has been a part of the world of business and management for decades. In the field of education, teachers have long recognized the importance of setting goals and objectives to structure what and how information is taught. Even in the arena of self-improvement, most programs, from Alcoholics Anonymous to Weight Watchers, are based on guiding clients in goal setting, achievement and evaluation. Therefore, it can be assumed that students as well could benefit from instruction on and practice in the procedures of effective goal setting, not only to improve themselves, but to better prepare them for the goal setting expectations of adulthood.

Research supports the idea of direct instruction in student goal setting. A study done with sixth and seventh grade students (Wentzel, 1991) showed that socially responsible classroom behavior is a powerful predictor of academic success. In addition, it suggests that those students who employ goal setting to self-regulate classroom behavior do better in measurements of social and academic performance, regardless of other factors.

Carroll and Christenson (1995) implemented a plan for goal setting with fifth grade language arts students throughout an academic year and found that there was an increase in motivation and better application of previously learned and new academic skills and strategies. Many students learn skills in isolation, but goal setting forces them to focus on strengths and weaknesses and the steps they need to take individually to improve performance. However, at the beginning, the teachers noted that students needed to be taught the process. Early goals were often not appropriate or meaningful or attainable.

Other studies have also shown the effectiveness of direct instruction of goal setting strategies to improve classroom behaviors (Anderson and Windeatt, 1995), improve the performance of at risk students (Miller, 1993), and prevent adolescent alcohol and drug abuse (Werner, 1991). However, the point stressed in all goal setting programs is the importance of direct instruction. The students need to understand the concept, learn how to set attainable and meaningful goals and carry them out, and evaluate their achievement.