Goal setting
in an online class
How to set and achieve goals,
setting your goals for this
semester
Online classes
• As a teacher, my goal is for everyone to
succeed. I have attempted to set up the class
activities and assessment procedures so that is
possible. I want not only to teach you ABOUT
effective teaching, but I also want be an example
of effective teaching.
• However, I have seen that one big difficulty is
the format of the class. Several people have
had significant trouble with doing a class
online—enough people that I feel I need to
address the issue of working independently.
Teaching and Learning
• Educational Psychology is an interesting
topic because not only does it require you
to think about teaching, it should also
require you to think about yourself as a
student. You will find in Educational
Psychology teaching strategies that will
work for you when you are trying to learn
something. You will also find learning
strategies that are effective for you.
But…
• That’s all in the future, in the chapters of
your textbook.
• Right now, I am asking you to think about
what you know about yourself as a
student. What are your experiences,
successful and unsuccessful? What
conditions led to the successes? What
conditions contributed to unsuccessful
experiences?
An example…
• I try not to ask students to do anything I’m
not willing to do myself.
• By the way…you don’t have to share your
experiences with me or anyone—I just
want you to think about them so you can
make a good plan. I’m sharing mine so
you can have an example.
My successes
• Because my dad was an English professor and
my mom an English major, reading was really
important in my house. Also, we had plenty to
read—a friend estimated we had about 5000
books (I am really not kidding). I learned to read
at home, at the age of four. Since reading is the
basis of a lot of learning at school, I experienced
success at school because I read significantly
above grade level. So, reading at home
contributed to my success at school. (Later on,
you will find that this household did not
contribute to my brother’s success…)
My difficulties
• Unfortunately, because I could read well, I was able to
accomplish many school tasks without really trying very
hard. So, I did not learn a real work ethic. In fact, this
remains a struggle with me. I am not very good at
breaking down a large task into do-able bits and
following through with doing each bit each day. I wrote
my dissertation (a 200+ “paper” for my Ph.D.) in a month
and a half—I crammed it instead of working a little bit
every day. That is not a good pattern for learning things
that can’t be crammed (such as violin—I was a Music
Ed. major in college).
Therefore…
• Taking an online class would have been a
struggle for me (particularly when I was an
undergrad—I probably could manage now). I
know what I would have done when I was an
undergrad—I would have let everything else
take the place of my online class because of not
having to show up to class and then have to
work like crazy to catch up. There was a time in
my life when I would have flunked the course. I
would have felt embarrassed about my inability
to keep up with the class. And, I would have not
had a clue as to how to deal with it.
Unfortunately…
• For many of you, Ed Psych is a high stakes
course. If you really learn the material in this
course, you will do well on the Praxis II
Principles of Learning and Teaching test. If you
do not learn the material, you may have to take
the test more than once and you may potentially
find yourself in the awful position of being
offered a job, but not having passed the test (this
actually happened to a former student of mine).
So…
• I have set up this goal-setting exercise so that you can
think about yourself as a learner. I want you to think
about what are the potential problems you might have
with an online class, so that you and I together might
prevent those problems from happening this semester.
Over the years, I have learned a lot of strategies for
dealing with breaking down tasks and following through
with doing them. This kind of learning will actually help
you to become a more effective teacher, because you
will be able to help your students develop a real work
ethic.
• Did I say: I want you to succeed? I really do. When I
give bad grades, I don’t sleep well at night—I wake up
thinking about the people who are getting them and
wondering what I could have done to prevent the bad
grade.
Worst case scenario
• You start this course and life happens,
whether it was things out of your control or
your own struggle with yourself. You
contact me and tell me about your life and
you drop the course. You can always take
it again. This has happened in the past—I
was very happy when a student who had
struggled with the course during one
semester did very well in another
semester.
Now, a note
• Most people in this class are going to be
educators, however, sometimes we have
students who are taking this class as an
elective for another major. If you are NOT
planning to be a teacher and you are NOT
going to take the Praxis, please talk to the
professor right now so that the goal setting
process can be adjusted to be constructive
for you.
Goal Setting Process
Set Goals
Make plans
Reflect
Put Plans in Action
Set Goals
•
•
•
•
•
•
Are the goals do-able?
Are they reasonably ambitious?
Do they really belong to you?
Are you motivated by these goals?
What will be the product(s) of the goals?
At the beginning, goals need to be short term
and VERY do-able.
• People need to build up from short-term, easy
goals to longer term and more difficult goals.
• Plan for success—create goals that can be
met.
Types of goals
• Process goals (learning goal): spending a certain amount of time on
an activity, behaving a certain way in class, or some other aspect of
the process.
• Product goals (performance goal): specific grade on a test,
completion of a certain project
• Short-term goals: goals that can be achieved in a short period of
time
• Long-term goals: goals that are achieved over a long period of time
• Approach goals: goals focused on achievement (learning-approach
is a goal to increase achievement, performance-approach is a goal
to increase performance).
• Avoidance goals: goals focused on avoiding something.
Performance-avoidance is a focus on performing in order to avoid
looking dumb.
Process goals in Educational
Psychology
• Spend a certain amount of time reading text or reviewing
concepts
• Review items to be memorized on a regular basis
• Practice applying educational psychology concepts to
classroom situations
• What other process goals can you think of?
• Often process goals are easier to achieve than product
goals because they are easier to measure (they can be
measured every day instead of just when something is
due). Good process goals lead to success in product
goals.
• What process goals might work for you? (open a word
processing file and make some notes for yourself)
Product goals in Educational
Psychology
• Getting a certain grade on tests
• Completing an extra credit project
• What other product goals can you think
of?
• What product goals might be appropriate
for you? Again, make notes in your word
processing file
Short and long term goals in
Educational Psychology
• Short term goals are those you might complete in a day
or a week’s time.
• Long term goals would be goals that you complete
across a semester and beyond (e.g., passing the Praxis
Principles of Learning and Teaching)
• It is much easier to monitor short term goals. Good short
term goals lead to the achievement of long term goals.
• What short term and long term goals might you have for
educational psychology?
• You’ve got the drill—make notes in your word processing
file.
Avoidance and Approach Goals
and Educational Psychology
• Approach goals might be the desire to do well
on Praxis, the desire to do well in the class, the
desire to develop effective study strategies.
• Avoidance goals might be to avoid paying for
Praxis more than once or to avoid doing more
work than one has to in class.
• What approach and avoidance goals might you
have? Please be honest about your goals—
realistically speaking, students often want to
avoid work as much as possible (if only because
of all the other demands of life).
A pictorial representation of goals
Approach
Short term
Process
Avoidance
Read text
Review Blackboard, etc.
daily
efficiently
leads to
leads to
Achievement
Long term
Product
streamlines
the learning process
leads to
A in class
Passing Praxis
Succeeding as teacher
More about setting goals
• Good goals are challenging, immediate,
and specific
Challenging
• Challenging: it’s not useful to focus on
something that is easy—it’s a waste of time. At
the same time, you don’t want to make your
goals so challenging that you cannot achieve
them.
• If you want to study something every day, but
you have never achieved this type of goal in the
past, then maybe you need to choose studying
for 15 minutes rather than studying for an hour.
Even 15 minutes every day will be challenging
and helpful and yet it is achievable if you are not
in the habit of doing so.
Immediate
• You may have long term goals such as passing
Praxis Principles of Learning and Teaching. Yet
you cannot easily monitor this kind of goal since
it is so far in the future. You need to develop a
series of short term goals that should logically
lead up to the successful achievement of the
long term goal and which you can easily monitor
• In terms of Educational Psychology, which daily
and weekly goals would lead to successful
achievement of your long term goals? Make
notes about this in your word processing file.
Specific
• It’s hard to check up on your goals if they are too
general. If your goal is to “study,” then how do you know
if you are really doing it? Does “study” mean halfheartedly reading your textbook while watching American
Idol? Does “study” mean vaguely going over some
concepts in your head while standing in line for the
cafeteria? Think about what the most effective way of
achieving your goals might be—try to be as specific as
possible. You know your history as a student and you
know what works for you and what doesn’t. Use this
knowledge. Make some notes about your ideas.
Make Plans
•
•
•
•
What are the steps towards accomplishing the goal?
What will be done by which deadline?
Does the process seem reasonable and worthwhile?
Can the process be broken down enough that you do not feel
overwhelmed?
• Try to work at least a small amount of time every day on your goals,
instead of cramming near a deadline.
• You need to think about how the deadlines you set will let you know
the workability of your goals. You need to make plans for how you will
rethink what you are doing if deadlines pass without visible progress.
Sometimes this means re-thinking goals and/or strategies.
More on plans
• If your goals include some kind of work
avoidance, then you need to think about how to
achieve your goals in the most efficient way
possible.
• Fifteen minutes of high quality studying (really
paying attention to what is being read, really
thinking about how to apply it, really taking some
time to actively memorize and review concepts)
is far more efficient and effective than a couple
of hours of multi-tasking.
Goals and values
• Think about your values in relation to your goals. If you
value succeeding as a teacher, including being a
strategic, effective, and resourceful teacher and also
sailing through the gate-keeping processes such as
Praxis assessments, then focus on that.
• A focus on your values will help you to achieve your
goals when your emotions tell you something different [in
a whining voice: “I’m too tired to study. I want to do
something different. This is boring. I hate this stuff. I
hate trying memorize stuff.”]
• Make some notes about your values in relation to
teaching and Educational Psychology.
Goals and busy lives
• Think about how you can split up your goals so they can
be achieved in short periods of time, particularly if you
have little control over your time away from class. For
example, instead of setting a goal of studying for an
hour, set a goal of reading the text, another goal for
working on memorization, and another goal for applying
knowledge. In the end, you might get an hour of
studying out of this, but each section can be achieved in
shorter periods of time. You might not get fifteen
minutes of continuous reading, but you might be able to
achieve the same thing with three five-minute segments
of reading carefully.
Goals and Busy Lives: The Jane
Austin Approach
• Jane Austin was a wonderful early British novelist (Pride and
Prejudice, Sense and Sensibility, etc.). She worked in her
family living room and when she heard the hinge on the living
room door squeak, she knew someone was coming in and
she put her writing away. The point is that she wrote her
many novels in little chunks of time that she found between
the times that family members and friends needed her—not in
huge stretches of time that many writers claim they need.
Even when you have just a few minutes of time available,
while you are waiting for a friend to pick you up or a pizza to
be delivered, you can put that time to use in achieving your
goals (achieving a short goal before having some fun will
make the fun twice as enjoyable). Think about this as you
structure your goals: what are short segments of “down time”
that you could use? What are tasks that will help and that
which can be achieved in short chunks of time?
Bottom Line: Here’s what you need
to do
Learn the Material
Apply the Material
Choose two:
Read the textbook (linguistic)
Read the power point (visual)
Listen to mp3 of text (aural)
Listen to mp3 of text and
write notes (aural and
kinesthetic)
Read the power point and
take notes (visual and
kinesthetic)
Read or listen while doing
stair step machine or
Do the activities Take the multiple
for each chapter choice tests
Take the
constructed
response tests
stationary bike (kinesthetic)
Your goals should reflect these three activities…
Practice for Praxis
Rewards program
• Check out the pdf document “Awards
Program.” Use this to help you make your
plans.
Resources You Can Use for Educational Psychology
• Textbook—offers basic explanation of concepts and examples
• Reading guide (on Blackboard)—offers alternative explanations, different
examples, and information in a visual format (rather than just words), offers
a way of reviewing concepts and testing yourself.
• Professor—I will explain things to you and will address your particular
questions. I am available during class and by e-mail at any time (also by
phone before 10 p.m.). I am available for e-mail or AOL-IM conversations on
a daily basis. I would be glad to help you to be accountable for your goals. I
really want you to succeed at the tasks you set for yourselves.
• World Wide Web—often you can find more explanations of concepts on the
web.
• Your fellow students—may have explanations that make sense to you.
• Agenda activities—offer ways of applying the information you have been
learning.
• Classroom time—I will be available during the set time of the class
(Mondays 4:30-7:30) and also can be available at other times.
Think about how you can use these resources as you set your goals.
Learning Activities
• You need to memorize certain concepts (these
will be indicated in the reading guides—the
“vocabulary” buttons on the last page of each
guide)
• You need to understand the concepts well
enough that you could explain them to someone
else
• You need to be able to apply these concepts to
actual teaching and learning situations in
classrooms (you have been in classrooms for
most of your life, so begin by remembering your
own experiences in school)
Teacher assistance
• I can offer you a variety of forms of
assistance, including explaining concepts
to you in person (during class hours and
other times by appointment) or by e-mail,
answering your questions, helping you
with test-taking processes, etc.
Teacher assistance
• I am also willing to “scaffold” (you’ll learn
more about that word real soon) your
online learning experience—for example, if
you need me to e-mail you periodically to
help you stay on track, I would be happy to
do so.
Ways I can help you keep up
Least assistance
Goal setting at Create
Reminder
beginning of
calendar with e-mail
course
me
from me
Most assistance
Daily e-mails Phone calls
Contact with
from you
from me
university/
regarding your
advisor
progress
This class…
• This is a three hour class. That means you
would spend three hours a week in class plus
time outside of class to read your text and study
for tests. Please write in your word processing
file if there are any potential problems with your
time and taking this class. Also, please let me
know if you have any concerns about taking this
class in terms of completing the work. I really
want you to succeed with this, and will do my
best to help you. (Sorry to be repetitive about
success—but it is one of the most important
values I have about teaching this course).
This class…
• For those of you who are taking Praxis,
the information in this class is critical—the
Principles of Learning and Teaching Test in
Praxis 2 is primarily about the concepts
you are learning in Educational
Psychology. Please think about what it will
take for you to learn these concepts
thoroughly—that will save you a lot of
heartache (and money) in the long run.
Put Plans In Action
• Try out your goals for a week.
• Monitor them and then REFLECT. When were you able
to work on them successfully? What were the barriers?
• Change your goals and/or strategies as necessary to
accommodate the realities of your life and where you are
as a student.
• Consider rewarding yourself for successful completion of
short term goals (making sure that your reward is
something you won’t feel bad about later—chocolate is a
wonderful reward if it doesn’t mess up some other aspect
of your life).
What you will turn in
In a new word processing document, write the word “Values” at the top.
Now, in one or two sentences, write about your values in relation to
teaching as a profession (or whatever your profession will be) and
educational psychology specifically. Be honest. This will not be useful to
you or to me if you try to guess what I want and write that—it will be a
waste of your time and mine. There is no grade for this assignment, so
there is no “politically correct” response (aside from it being part of
“participation”).
Then, write your goals for Educational Psychology (probably 4-5 goals)
based on the notes you took, the activities you need to do, and how you
might participate in the rewards program. Write any concerns you have
about taking an on-line course. Type your name on your document.
E-mail me your value and goals document