Learning Goals

Of course you have your teaching goals for the course. But what are your students' learning goals? The quality of work students will do in your course is based on their goals. Research shows that learning goals are closely related to student motivation. Good teachers help students establish effective learning goals and reap the benefits of greater academic involvement in their courses.
As students begin to settle into your classes, you can help them think about what a good set of learning goals would be. Here are some tips that you can use to get students to develop success enhancing learning goals.

Setting Goals

Students need to become aware that they implicitly set learning goals. You can recommend that they do this thoughtfully. Remember: they not you decide on these goals. The teacher's duty is to help them make this decision well.

Student View. Prepare for your discussions about learning goals by looking at your course from the students' view rather than the teacher's. What skills, knowledge, attitudes can they gain? What is the difference between average learning goals and high ones -- use performance terms (e.g., learn to read critically) rather than grades?

Brainstorm. Take a few minutes out of class and ask students to list their goals for the course. Collect and share the lists. If time permits, ask them to discuss the strengths and weaknesses of their list.

Goal Assignment. Ask your students to write down their learning goals as a homework assignment. You may share them as suggested above or you may return them with individual comments.

Try not to depend on grades when discussing goals. Grading is an extrinsic motivator. Intrinsic goals are better motivators. Additionally, grades chart status more than learning. Students may evaluate status goals without considering their own growth as learners.

Be Realistic

Student goals should be high and realistic. The teacher can play an important role by giving students realistic feedback on their goals. The best role to take is one of guidance -- support and encourage students to reflect on their goals.

Positive Expectations. High, realistic expectations reinforce good learning goals. Ask questions or create situations that call for more complex skills related to high learning goals. Be positive; offer encouragement, give prompts, and provide assistance as students reach for these goals. Remind them when your activities are related to their stated learning goals.

Give Strategies. Give students your ideas about how they might reach their learning goals. Do they need to develop sub-goals? Do they have a reasonable plan for attaining their goals? Use class discussion or homework assignments to help them translate goals into actions.

Make Connections. Help students connect their list of goals to the real world. Is this really what someone in the community needs to be able to do? What happens to those who do not gain these competencies?

Create a Mastery Attitude

As W. Edward Deming's work on quality improvement has amply demonstrated, growth comes from working toward mastery rather than meeting externally mandated requirements. Good teachers create this atmosphere in their class, asking students to continually reassess their progress toward their goals.

Feedback Points. Create opportunities for students to reflect on where they are in terms of their goals. Offer extra credit to students who will write comments in response to an exam or essay you have returned that reflect on what the results say about their learning progress (or problems). We have fifty techniques, called CATs, you can readily use to assess learning.

Reduce Fear. Create assignments that reduce the cost of honest failure. Give feedback on drafts before grading final essays. Math or science teachers may offer credit to students who journal about their learning processes -- where reflection rather than answers are graded. There are also techniques to reduce risk. Call us to get some suggestions.

Give Choices. Offer alternative assignments that allow students to pursue their learning goals more directly. Oral presentations, office visits, and special projects may allow students to work toward their learning goals better than traditional assignments.

Final Comments

One of the key connections between the teacher's plans and the students' efforts can be found in the learners' goals. By helping to clarify students' learning goals, the teacher helps them connect to the teacher's goals. Creating goals and continually reflecting on them helps students see how their decisions are also responsible for success in the classroom. More details on how setting goals translates into motivated students can be found in an essay by Forsyth and McMillan that we will be glad to send to you. This essay has dozens of tips. You may also be interested in looking through Angelo & Cross, Classroom Assessment Techniques to get ideas (CATs) about how to readily monitor student progress toward their learning goals. Contact the CIRT for further information.

This Teaching Tip was first published by Indiana State University’s, Center for Teaching and Learning on September 15, 1997.