On goal setting and motivation
Why SMART goals are not enough
We all know, both intuitively and based on the evidence, that goal setting is correlated with academic success. Causality is always contentious, but let’s leave that discussion for another day. But what if our gold standard SMART goal rubric is flawed? And what of student habit formation and motivation?
Teachers have an important part to play in helping students set goals. Until fairly recently, I didn’t examine my role too closely, but after a few years of seeing already highly motivated students achieve their goals and the not-so-motivated stagnate, I thought it was time to investigate. How do we support the students who ‘set and forget.’ I’ll unpack why I think SMART goals are a decent destination but not so helpful on the journey, and then I’ll share some key takeaways from Peps McCrea’s Motivated Teaching, and propose some ideas about how we can play a more impactful role in student success.
On SMART goals
There are a few issues that I have with adopting SMART goals uncritically. The first one is that they ignore habit formation. Certain habits can be goals in themselves, making them somewhat non-specific and not particularly measurable. A student who has the goal of planning and sticking to a study routine each day would have far greater chance of academic improvement than, say, the same student aiming for a B in Biology. And some of these ‘keystone’ habits have far reaching benefits, for example planning and routine, which flow on to other areas of life. In industry, especially in sales where KPIs are the measure of success, these small and quantifiable actions are called ‘lead’ measures. The ‘lag’ measure is the achievement of the SMART goal itself. But with an emphasis on end-goals rather than habits, the measure at the end of semester presents itself far too late. Do our students understand and value habit formation? Do they really understand what they will need to do on most days to achieve their goals?
The second issue I have with SMART goals is that they rely on the student to decide what is realistic and attainable. Some students set their sights too high, leading to disappointment and demotivation. Others are performing at the top of their game - where could they possibly go next? Are schools providing enough pastoral time or space to deep dive into these deeply personal and sometimes difficult conversations?
On motivation
The role of motivation in goal setting needs more of our attention. We often exhibit a kind of Kevin Costner faith in the power of the goal setting itself: ‘If you set them, they will come’. I read Peps McCrea’s brilliant book on motivation recently. It’s extremely short and pithy, very well researched. And for that reason I recommend that you give it a go yourself. I’m going to take five of his ‘core drivers’ and explain how we could leverage them in schools to help students achieve their goals.
Secure success
Give pupils a high success rate to look back on; frame what success means and help them attribute it accurately; pre-empt failure
Run routines
Make the process of learning easy, whilst keeping the content of learning challenging; script chains and cues; stick with it
Nudge norms
Elevate the visibility of desirable norms; amplify peer approval; emphasise what you want to happen, not what you don't
Build belonging
Signal the status of all pupils in your class; develop a unifying purpose and identify common ground; earn and keep trust
Boost buy-in
Expose the benefits of the choices you make for your pupils; provide opportunities for them to opt in; invest in building metamotivation
Mccrea, Peps. Motivated Teaching: Harnessing the science of motivation to boost attention and effort in the classroom (High Impact Teaching Book 3) (p. 109). Kindle Edition.
On harnessing the drivers of motivation
To secure success teachers need to ensure that goals are realistic. Some short term measures of formative improvement could give students a sense of early success. Students can be supported by schools providing charts to track lead measures. These tracked actions can be attributed to success in student conversations. Pre-empt failure by asking students to identify obstacles in advance, rather than pretending they don’t exist.
Run routines in your pastoral role by scripting the kinds of questions you will be asking in goal reflection sessions, and meet regularly with students to help them track their habits. This will increase accountability but also simplify the tracking process, adding to the suite of habits that students will hopefully be building.
Make sure your conversations aren’t dominated by what students are not doing. Celebrate the successes of the class or pastoral group publicly. Talk about long term goals and dreams as a group. Normalise goal setting and explicitly teach from your motivational toolkit.
Context is everything. Different settings and diverse teacher roles in this area will call for varying responses. But the key drivers will remain the same. Looking at goal setting as part of a matrix of behaviours and dispositions - both ours and those of our students - has the potential for exciting gains, not just for our high fliers.
Tell me in the comments, or on Twitter: what has and hasn’t worked for you in your teaching and pastoral roles?