This month, I want to continue my presentation of the Conditions of Learning by focusing on goal setting as it relates to teaching. Most of us think that we have a rather good notion of how to engage in goal setting. After all, we reached Black Belt and beyond, and we run our businesses successfully.
We know that goals must be specific, challenging, attainable, performance-oriented and measurable. We all like to have some idea of where we’re going and what we’re doing. The same is true of your students. Without achieving goals, students become uncertain of where they are going, and thus lose motivation.
This applies to your teaching in a number of ways.
Student expectations.
First, it’s important to know why your students are coming to class. More importantly, you must ask if you’re willing and/or able to teach what they are seeking. Fulfilling students’ needs and reducing students’ frustrations provide meaningful reasons to continue the process of training. It’s critical, therefore, that your instructors and students share congruent and synergetic expectations.
In-class performance goals.
The second aspect of goal setting is the practical goal associated with any part of a lesson plan. These types of goals are very specific, short-term goals and impact class performance. Performance goals allow students and instructors to measure the degree to which training drills have been successfully executed.
One of the keys is that the goal should be challenging enough to motivate your students, and also measurable, so that students can see exactly how close they are to success. A measurable performance goal for a biomechanical action might include the correct foot or body position.
Whether being used in class or during competition, performance goals must lie within students’ immediate sphere of control and not be dependent upon an outcome beyond their control. To drive home the point: Students can control the number of times a skill is attempted during a tournament match; however, students cannot control what score, if any, a referee might award for a successful technique.
Long-term goals.
A third set of goals relates to how your lesson plans fit into a long-term program of study. Every lesson plan should be a step in the process of reaching a specific goal, and pre-supposes the existence of a long-range plan, such as achieving a certain level of rank, fitness or competitive ability.
An example of a long-term goal is achieving a Black Belt. Each preceding rank, then, is a progressive step and a measurable indicator of proximity to the major goal. Each requirement for rank is an action step within the single goal of obtaining the next rank, and should be reflected in your lesson-plan sequence. Each lesson plan and class drill is an action step for the intermediate goals.
“Without achieving goals, students become uncertain of where they are going, and thus lose motivation.”
By analogy, each lesson plan is a section of a road, and the long-term plan is the road map you will use to guide your students to their chosen destinations. If you have no idea what you will be teaching next week, then how will your students know how useful this week’s lesson plan will be to their overall growth and development?
Coaching goals.
The last set of goals that impact the learning environment includes your personal goals as a coach. Your teaching goals must be congruent with your philosophical goals, so ask yourself: Why you are teaching?
Sometimes, your goals may be competing with each other. For instance, if you think a big children’s program will pay the bills, but you hate teaching kids, then you have a problem. Alternatively, if you want to train people for tournaments, then make sure that you recruit students who share your desires.
It logically follows that your coaching goals and level of congruence will affect the number and type of students that you recruit and retain. Simply put, it’s a good idea to be working from the same road map that you provide your students.
