Literature Review
Goal Setting
A key to my action research is setting goals with my students. However, it is not as simple as explaining what a goal is and asking students to pick something they want to work on. I needed to do research on a number of topics. First, I needed to decide what types of goals I wanted my students to set. I knew I wanted to put some sort of parameters on their goals, but I did not know if I wanted to have students choose from a number of types of goals including personal, behavior, and academic goals or if I wanted them to set goals within one of those specific categories. I had decided I wanted to have my students set individual goals that contributed to the overall classroom community, but how could I do this? My ultimate goal was to make their thoughts authentic, meaningful, and relevant to their year in my classroom. I quickly realized my major challenge was to figure out how to make goal setting effective and sincere.
An excerpt from Effective Classroom Practice: Goals by D. Stipek, gave me overall direction on the types of goals I will work with my students to develop. Stipek gives three helpful tips for setting up and implementing these goals in the classroom. The tips he provides are: Create short-term (proximal) goals, vary goals amongst students, and engage students in personal goal-setting. These three parameters, worked perfectly to guide how I plan to implement goal setting in my classroom.
Through the individual need sof each student that each would have small differences they would need to make to help them
Based on my students' individual needs, each will have small difference they could make to help them achieve their highest level of potential. The specific modifications I paid attention to were those that would also affect the classroom community. For example, if Angel chose the right times to talk and play, he would focus more on what is being taught, and allow the class to be less distracted as well. I could address many of the modifications students could make, through a general class goal of choosing the right time to talk and play. However unless I work individually with each student, this general goal would not necessarily be effective. Angel may not know this applies to him while Lucy may think it is her job to then inform any student who is not meeting this goal that they are misbehaving, thus causing more distractions.
This is where Stipek’s idea, to vary goals among students and then engage the students in personal goal setting, comes into play. I can work with students individually to develop goals that would specifically work for them while also benefiting the class. In my goal setting conversations, I would help students to understand why they are setting these goals. By working one on one with students, they are learning that the enduring understanding of this activity is about becoming more self aware and making choices that benefit them and the students around them. By becoming more aware of themselves, students will gain the skills to self monitor and turn their short term goals, into a behavior that makes them aware of the people and settings around them as well as their setting.
Stipek’s states that, “differential goal setting will work only if appropriately challenging goals are valued and reinforced, regardless of how one student's goals compare to other students' goals or achievements.” This informed me that no matter how, difficult one students’ goal may seem in comparison to another student’s I must work equally with each student to show them the value of their goal, and reinforce students in accomplishing them. This is why I will have students rate their ability to set goals daily and then review and discuss the week of goal setting with each student at the end of the week.
The excerpt from Stipek’s book connects directly to the research I reviewed on social-emotional learning by explaining that, “personal goal-setting has also been shown to raise self-efficacy (Schunk, 1985a) and enhance performance (Hom & Murphy, 1985),” which is ultimately the reason I wanted to implement goal setting in my classroom.
The next key piece of research I found was an article by Boekaerts, M. and Corno, L. (2005). The article suggest that, “when students have access to well-refined volitional strategies manifested as good work habits, they are more likely to invest effort in learning and get off the well-being track when a stressor blocks learning.” Boekaerts article supports my goal of having students develop behavior goals that improve students’ social emotional learning, so they can progress to their highest potential while also benefiting the classroom community as a whole. If Angel learns, from goal setting, how to pick the right times to talk and play based on his own volition, Angel will most likely learn to focus on the lesson, and over time improve his work habits. Ones his work habit skills are improved, he will be able to focus his attention on academic goals, because his behavior impedes less on his learning. This theory can apply to all of my students who will take part in my action research. If Jeneese begins to talk louder when she shares her ideas, so she can actually be heard, she and I will not have to work on getting her to talk loud but focus on her continual pursuit of learning. In context of this article volitional strategies, are strategies that allow students to self-regulate their learning.
Boekaerts, M. and Corno, L. look into and discusses various forms of self-regulation that are popular in literature and educational psychology. Then they discuss, “intervention programs designed to help students regulate their affect, motivation, cognition, and action in the service of goals.” One cognitive behavior modification they look at is manipulating students’ motivation in tasks through goal setting, efficacy beliefs, and attributions. However if a student has behavioral choices that are impeding their learning, motivating them to try harder or succeed in academic areas will not improve their learning. First the behavior that is impeding the learning must be addressed. As Boekaerts, M. and Corno, L. suggest, once behaviors allow students to develop good work habits, then students can focus on academic goals, because they know how to self regulate.
Based on looking at the multiples form of self-regulation and interventions to promote self-regulation, I believe gearing my students toward improving their self-regulation and social emotional learning skill through individual goal setting will help their learning.
The idea of goal setting in a second grade classroom, sounded daunting to me. Teaching a child to ride a bike is different than teaching students when it is appropriate and inappropriate to talk and then teaching the students the skills to self-regulate talking.
Stipek’s book introduced me to a study conducted by John P. Gaa (1973) that, “demonstrated that first and second graders can develop skills in setting appropriate goals for themselves—ones that are challenging but likely to be achieved.” Gaa’s subjects were not picked based on gender or previous achievement levels. Three groups were assembled: the first group set goals and had weekly conferences, the second group had weekly conferences but did not set goals and the third group, the control group, had no conferences. The goal and conference group, “met weekly with an experimenter to set goals for the next week and discuss achievements relative to the previous week's goals.” At the conclusion of the study it was found that the first group, that had goals and weekly conferences, “[had] significantly higher achievement than the conference only group and the control group.”
Gaa’s study helped me to form the procedure I will take when setting goals with my students. I plan to meet weekly with my students, individually, to talk about his or her achievement relative to the goal they set that week. Based on their reflection, my observations and our discussion, we will then set a goal for the next week. (Note individual goal setting sheet) This pattern will repeat weekly until the end of my first phase. (Note action plan) After studying this specific study of Gaa’s and viewing a few of his other studies, I am now confident that my students can successfully implement goal setting.
An excerpt from Effective Classroom Practice: Goals by D. Stipek, gave me overall direction on the types of goals I will work with my students to develop. Stipek gives three helpful tips for setting up and implementing these goals in the classroom. The tips he provides are: Create short-term (proximal) goals, vary goals amongst students, and engage students in personal goal-setting. These three parameters, worked perfectly to guide how I plan to implement goal setting in my classroom.
Through the individual need sof each student that each would have small differences they would need to make to help them
Based on my students' individual needs, each will have small difference they could make to help them achieve their highest level of potential. The specific modifications I paid attention to were those that would also affect the classroom community. For example, if Angel chose the right times to talk and play, he would focus more on what is being taught, and allow the class to be less distracted as well. I could address many of the modifications students could make, through a general class goal of choosing the right time to talk and play. However unless I work individually with each student, this general goal would not necessarily be effective. Angel may not know this applies to him while Lucy may think it is her job to then inform any student who is not meeting this goal that they are misbehaving, thus causing more distractions.
This is where Stipek’s idea, to vary goals among students and then engage the students in personal goal setting, comes into play. I can work with students individually to develop goals that would specifically work for them while also benefiting the class. In my goal setting conversations, I would help students to understand why they are setting these goals. By working one on one with students, they are learning that the enduring understanding of this activity is about becoming more self aware and making choices that benefit them and the students around them. By becoming more aware of themselves, students will gain the skills to self monitor and turn their short term goals, into a behavior that makes them aware of the people and settings around them as well as their setting.
Stipek’s states that, “differential goal setting will work only if appropriately challenging goals are valued and reinforced, regardless of how one student's goals compare to other students' goals or achievements.” This informed me that no matter how, difficult one students’ goal may seem in comparison to another student’s I must work equally with each student to show them the value of their goal, and reinforce students in accomplishing them. This is why I will have students rate their ability to set goals daily and then review and discuss the week of goal setting with each student at the end of the week.
The excerpt from Stipek’s book connects directly to the research I reviewed on social-emotional learning by explaining that, “personal goal-setting has also been shown to raise self-efficacy (Schunk, 1985a) and enhance performance (Hom & Murphy, 1985),” which is ultimately the reason I wanted to implement goal setting in my classroom.
The next key piece of research I found was an article by Boekaerts, M. and Corno, L. (2005). The article suggest that, “when students have access to well-refined volitional strategies manifested as good work habits, they are more likely to invest effort in learning and get off the well-being track when a stressor blocks learning.” Boekaerts article supports my goal of having students develop behavior goals that improve students’ social emotional learning, so they can progress to their highest potential while also benefiting the classroom community as a whole. If Angel learns, from goal setting, how to pick the right times to talk and play based on his own volition, Angel will most likely learn to focus on the lesson, and over time improve his work habits. Ones his work habit skills are improved, he will be able to focus his attention on academic goals, because his behavior impedes less on his learning. This theory can apply to all of my students who will take part in my action research. If Jeneese begins to talk louder when she shares her ideas, so she can actually be heard, she and I will not have to work on getting her to talk loud but focus on her continual pursuit of learning. In context of this article volitional strategies, are strategies that allow students to self-regulate their learning.
Boekaerts, M. and Corno, L. look into and discusses various forms of self-regulation that are popular in literature and educational psychology. Then they discuss, “intervention programs designed to help students regulate their affect, motivation, cognition, and action in the service of goals.” One cognitive behavior modification they look at is manipulating students’ motivation in tasks through goal setting, efficacy beliefs, and attributions. However if a student has behavioral choices that are impeding their learning, motivating them to try harder or succeed in academic areas will not improve their learning. First the behavior that is impeding the learning must be addressed. As Boekaerts, M. and Corno, L. suggest, once behaviors allow students to develop good work habits, then students can focus on academic goals, because they know how to self regulate.
Based on looking at the multiples form of self-regulation and interventions to promote self-regulation, I believe gearing my students toward improving their self-regulation and social emotional learning skill through individual goal setting will help their learning.
The idea of goal setting in a second grade classroom, sounded daunting to me. Teaching a child to ride a bike is different than teaching students when it is appropriate and inappropriate to talk and then teaching the students the skills to self-regulate talking.
Stipek’s book introduced me to a study conducted by John P. Gaa (1973) that, “demonstrated that first and second graders can develop skills in setting appropriate goals for themselves—ones that are challenging but likely to be achieved.” Gaa’s subjects were not picked based on gender or previous achievement levels. Three groups were assembled: the first group set goals and had weekly conferences, the second group had weekly conferences but did not set goals and the third group, the control group, had no conferences. The goal and conference group, “met weekly with an experimenter to set goals for the next week and discuss achievements relative to the previous week's goals.” At the conclusion of the study it was found that the first group, that had goals and weekly conferences, “[had] significantly higher achievement than the conference only group and the control group.”
Gaa’s study helped me to form the procedure I will take when setting goals with my students. I plan to meet weekly with my students, individually, to talk about his or her achievement relative to the goal they set that week. Based on their reflection, my observations and our discussion, we will then set a goal for the next week. (Note individual goal setting sheet) This pattern will repeat weekly until the end of my first phase. (Note action plan) After studying this specific study of Gaa’s and viewing a few of his other studies, I am now confident that my students can successfully implement goal setting.
Social Emotional Learning
When working with students on goals setting, it’s essential that they are aware of their own needs and performance as well as those around them. Social Emotional Learning is a type of classroom management and teaching style that allows students to become aware of their own behaviors as well as others. Vanessa Vega from Edutopia looked into and reviewed numerous studies and articles on SEL and compiled her findings into an meta-analysis of 213 SEL programs. Vega states that, “Researchers generally agree upon five key competencies of SEL (Durlak, Weissberg, Dymnicki, Taylor & Schellinger, 2011.”) These five components help us to understand and define SEL. These five keys are: self-awareness, self-management, social awareness, relationship skills, and responsible decision-making. Please refer to her chart of these 5 key components for further understanding.
I believe these five components that make up SEL are essential for my students to learn and understand in order to help them set and accomplish goals. “Students who are more self-aware and confident about their learning capacities try harder and persist in the face of challenges (Aronson, 2002; cited in Durlak et al., 2011). Students who set high academic goals, have self-discipline, motivate themselves, manage stress, and organize their approach to work learn more and get better grades (Duckworth & Seligman, 2005; Elliot & Dweck, 2005; cited in Durlak et al., 2011).”
One of the main reasons I am working with my students to set goals is because, as stated in my introduction, there are a lot of behavior choices my students are making that are impeding my students ability to succeed to their full potential. Based on Vega’s meta-analysis, studies have found that SEL “reduced aggression and emotional distress among students, increased helping behaviors in school, and improved positive attitudes toward self and others (Durlak et al., 2011).”
My students come from varying home situations ranging from severe to ideal. This impacts their behavior and feelings at school. My goal is that hopefully by helping students to set goals, they will feel better about themselves, see school as a positive environment, and make choices in all domains that enhance their learning. I want them to see school and learning as a positive tool and place to help them continue to grow and mature.
Vega sums up my choice to use SEL to enhance the effectiveness of goal setting when she writes, “Relationships and emotional processes affect how and what we learn. By reducing misbehavior and the amount of time spent on classroom management, SEL programs create more time for teaching and learning. SEL also strengthens students' relationships with their peers, families, and teachers, who are mediators, collaborators, and encouragers of academic achievement.”
According to Payton et al., (2008) meta-analysis of three reviews that included 317 studies and involved 324,303 children, SEL benefits students with and without behavioral and emotional problems. Although some of our students do have behavior and emotional problems, I would not categorize the majority of the class as having emotional or behavioral problems. Most of the students in our class either need to be reminded or taught about self-control and decision making that benefits them and the classroom community.
Although my action research is centered on setting goals, SEL will be used to help facilitate the process. Payton et al., (2008) found that SEL programs improved student’s “academic performance; and reduced students’ conduct problems and emotional distress. SEL programs are among the most successful youth-development programs offered to school-age youth” (Payton et al., 2008, p. 4). Payton et al., (2008) also found that SEL is easily incorporated into “routine educational practices” based on the ability of varying school staff to implement and carry out SEL programs in their school.
I believe these five components that make up SEL are essential for my students to learn and understand in order to help them set and accomplish goals. “Students who are more self-aware and confident about their learning capacities try harder and persist in the face of challenges (Aronson, 2002; cited in Durlak et al., 2011). Students who set high academic goals, have self-discipline, motivate themselves, manage stress, and organize their approach to work learn more and get better grades (Duckworth & Seligman, 2005; Elliot & Dweck, 2005; cited in Durlak et al., 2011).”
One of the main reasons I am working with my students to set goals is because, as stated in my introduction, there are a lot of behavior choices my students are making that are impeding my students ability to succeed to their full potential. Based on Vega’s meta-analysis, studies have found that SEL “reduced aggression and emotional distress among students, increased helping behaviors in school, and improved positive attitudes toward self and others (Durlak et al., 2011).”
My students come from varying home situations ranging from severe to ideal. This impacts their behavior and feelings at school. My goal is that hopefully by helping students to set goals, they will feel better about themselves, see school as a positive environment, and make choices in all domains that enhance their learning. I want them to see school and learning as a positive tool and place to help them continue to grow and mature.
Vega sums up my choice to use SEL to enhance the effectiveness of goal setting when she writes, “Relationships and emotional processes affect how and what we learn. By reducing misbehavior and the amount of time spent on classroom management, SEL programs create more time for teaching and learning. SEL also strengthens students' relationships with their peers, families, and teachers, who are mediators, collaborators, and encouragers of academic achievement.”
According to Payton et al., (2008) meta-analysis of three reviews that included 317 studies and involved 324,303 children, SEL benefits students with and without behavioral and emotional problems. Although some of our students do have behavior and emotional problems, I would not categorize the majority of the class as having emotional or behavioral problems. Most of the students in our class either need to be reminded or taught about self-control and decision making that benefits them and the classroom community.
Although my action research is centered on setting goals, SEL will be used to help facilitate the process. Payton et al., (2008) found that SEL programs improved student’s “academic performance; and reduced students’ conduct problems and emotional distress. SEL programs are among the most successful youth-development programs offered to school-age youth” (Payton et al., 2008, p. 4). Payton et al., (2008) also found that SEL is easily incorporated into “routine educational practices” based on the ability of varying school staff to implement and carry out SEL programs in their school.
Motivation
Motivation is one of the main indicators of whether or not someone will succeed at accomplishing their goal. Clearly if someone has no motivation to achieve a goal, they are not going to work towards it. I want to work with my students to discover what could motivate them to accomplish their goals. First I must figure out whether my students are more driven by intrinsic or extrinsic motivation. Once I know where their motivation for the topic of their goal comes from, I will better be able to work with each student to develop a method for encouraging and motivating them.
There are multiple theories on motivation, however I believe that the applicability of each theory is based on individuals’ thoughts and perceptions. Bandura’s theory explains that people are motivated by others’ rewards and punishments. Their behavior is based on wanting to be rewarded in the same way or to avoid the same kind of punishment. Based on my observation of my students I know some students see other students get in trouble for an action and immediately change their behavior so they do not receive the same punishment. In the same light, a student was praised and given a prize for being the first person to help another students. As soon as the teacher asked for a volunteer 5 other students raised their hands, in hopes of getting the same reward. It is clear that this theory applies to some students in my class and definitely not others.
Two of my students have a huge fear off not doing well in class. Both students will cry if they even get a warning to start behaving better. They also fear not doing well on exams because they do not want to get into trouble at home. This behavior seems to fall under Skinner’s behaviorist perspective. Their behavior and academic motivation is driven by a fear of punishment and hopes of rewards.
On the completely opposite page of these students is a student whose motivation does not come from punishment or reward. My master teacher and I have been looking into every option we can think of to motivate this student. She does not seem bothered when she is given detention and has to caller her mom; nor is she motivated by working towards a prize, that she was originally interested in. Of course there are many factors, externally and internally that could contribute to her lack of interest in prize or punishment. Her sisters have told her she is stupid and badly behaved so many times that she now believes this. I think these thoughts contribute to her lack of motivation. Weiners attribution theory claims that students attribute their success or failures to innate ability. His attribution theory would explain her lack of motivation, if she believes she is innately not smart, she probably sees no point in trying. I want to work with her, through goal setting, to help her realize: how smart she really is, that there are different types of intelligence, how much potential she has and that applying one’s self can help her succeed.
These are just a few of the many motivational theories that could be impacting my students’ motivation. One motivational theory that will be influencing the type of goals I set with my students is, Dweck’s goal theory. According to Dweck, there are two types of goal setting that students typically fall into. Students’ motivation for accomplishing and setting goals is usually oriented toward performance or mastery. According to Dr. Mark Girod (2013) of Western Oregon University, people who set performance goals are motivated by, “looking competent in the eyes of others.” This would include winning a soccer game or getting and A on a Social Studies test. On the other hand, people motivated by “gaining new knowledge and skills,” set mastery goals. (Girod, M. 2013) In this case you would want to learn how to master a certain soccer skill or understand the history of the gold rush.
I want my students to help my students to set goals that require motivation based on mastery not performance. Ideally their goals would allow them to gain some of the key skills expressed in SEL; in turn enhancing the classroom community.
There are multiple theories on motivation, however I believe that the applicability of each theory is based on individuals’ thoughts and perceptions. Bandura’s theory explains that people are motivated by others’ rewards and punishments. Their behavior is based on wanting to be rewarded in the same way or to avoid the same kind of punishment. Based on my observation of my students I know some students see other students get in trouble for an action and immediately change their behavior so they do not receive the same punishment. In the same light, a student was praised and given a prize for being the first person to help another students. As soon as the teacher asked for a volunteer 5 other students raised their hands, in hopes of getting the same reward. It is clear that this theory applies to some students in my class and definitely not others.
Two of my students have a huge fear off not doing well in class. Both students will cry if they even get a warning to start behaving better. They also fear not doing well on exams because they do not want to get into trouble at home. This behavior seems to fall under Skinner’s behaviorist perspective. Their behavior and academic motivation is driven by a fear of punishment and hopes of rewards.
On the completely opposite page of these students is a student whose motivation does not come from punishment or reward. My master teacher and I have been looking into every option we can think of to motivate this student. She does not seem bothered when she is given detention and has to caller her mom; nor is she motivated by working towards a prize, that she was originally interested in. Of course there are many factors, externally and internally that could contribute to her lack of interest in prize or punishment. Her sisters have told her she is stupid and badly behaved so many times that she now believes this. I think these thoughts contribute to her lack of motivation. Weiners attribution theory claims that students attribute their success or failures to innate ability. His attribution theory would explain her lack of motivation, if she believes she is innately not smart, she probably sees no point in trying. I want to work with her, through goal setting, to help her realize: how smart she really is, that there are different types of intelligence, how much potential she has and that applying one’s self can help her succeed.
These are just a few of the many motivational theories that could be impacting my students’ motivation. One motivational theory that will be influencing the type of goals I set with my students is, Dweck’s goal theory. According to Dweck, there are two types of goal setting that students typically fall into. Students’ motivation for accomplishing and setting goals is usually oriented toward performance or mastery. According to Dr. Mark Girod (2013) of Western Oregon University, people who set performance goals are motivated by, “looking competent in the eyes of others.” This would include winning a soccer game or getting and A on a Social Studies test. On the other hand, people motivated by “gaining new knowledge and skills,” set mastery goals. (Girod, M. 2013) In this case you would want to learn how to master a certain soccer skill or understand the history of the gold rush.
I want my students to help my students to set goals that require motivation based on mastery not performance. Ideally their goals would allow them to gain some of the key skills expressed in SEL; in turn enhancing the classroom community.