Aiming High Step 5

Aiming High: The ability to set clear, tangible goals and devise a robust route to achieving them.

Step 5: I set goals for myself

Outcomes

To achieve Step 5, learners will show that they can set goals for themselves.

Earlier steps focused on building up to this by introducing the notion of what success looks like through success criteria, then the importance of both taking pride in that success but also the importance of seeking out new challenges to support learning. This step combines those elements by introducing the setting of goals.

Learners need to be able to:

Set themselves goals that are based on their stretch zones
Be clear about how they will know if a goal has been achieved

Introduction

A goal is something that we want to happen, and that we will work towards achieving. There are different types of goals that we might set ourselves:
- Short term goals: things that we can achieve quite quickly – for example, in a day or a few hours.
- Mid-term goals: perhaps they take a few days, a week or even a month. For example, we might want to improve our fitness or our accuracy at scoring in basketball. Mid-term goals take sustained effort to achieve.
- Long-term goals: These are goals that might take a lot longer to achieve – for example, achieving a particular qualification or something. These are goals that we need to work at for a longer time period and which it might be hard to see progress on day-today.
For mid-term and long-term goals, we also have to think about breaking these into smaller goals to keep us motivated to keep trying.

Skill Starter

Set the Goalposts

Model setting a personal short, mid- and long-term goal to the group, based on your own stretch zone.

Give learners a few minutes to reflect on their stretch zone and what they would like to achieve (individually or in pairs). Additional support can be given with timeframes or options to choose from.

On a piece of paper or sticky notes, ask learners to make a note of their own goals.

Then, in pairs, learners can support each other to sort these into the three categories: short, mid- and long-term goals.

15 mins

Individual activity

Written

Teach & Apply

When we set ourselves goals, it is important to think about whether they are goals in our stretch zone to give us the best chance of success.
It is helpful to start setting clear targets as we work towards our longer-term goals.
The best targets are those that are SMART:
- Specific – it is clear exactly what you are trying to do
- Measurable – you can measure whether it has been met or not
- Achievable – it is in your stretch zone – not too hard or too easy
- Realistic – it is something that makes sense to do
- Timed – you know when it needs to be done by

Optional Activity

SMART Thinking

Using the goals from the previous ‘Set the Goalposts’ activity, or other existing goals, learners should work together in groups of 3 - 6 to break down one or more of their goals into SMART targets.

This task can be divided in two parts where learners start off making SMART targets independently. Then, they take turns presenting their target(s) to their group.

Each member can take 1 or more of the ‘SMART’ letters and be responsible for checking that the target meets those criteria. This task can be followed up at an appropriate later date so that learners can review whether they have been successful or share their progress to date.

25 mins

Group activity

Discussion

Active

Reflection & Assessment

Embed these strategies across your teaching and coaching to help learners apply what they’ve learnt.

Learners could be encouraged to take responsibility for coming up with their own learning goals and the measures of whether they have been successful – or perhaps in collaboration with a coach. Learners should be asked to review whether they have been successful and to reflect on their progress using these targets over time.

Use these ideas for ways of assessing this skill step to help you check learners’ understanding and confidence.

Get learners to create a series of short-, mid- and long-term targets for themselves and turn these into SMART targets.They could alternatively do this by being given a broad goal and having to think about how this can be turned in to SMART targets.
Ask these reflective questions:
- What is a goal?
- How can we set goals in our stretch zone?
- How do goals and success criteria fit together?