www.collegetransition.org
4.2.4
Promising Practice 4: Preparing Students for College-level Math
Goal-Setting Activity
1. Share the research findings on goal setting from John Comings’s research.1
2. Have the students number off by threes or fours to form groups of four for
the activity and to give them a chance to get acquainted at the same time.
3. Ask: “What does it take for you to pursue your educational goals?” Have
each group think about this question.
4. Post the title “Pursuing Educational Goals” in the center of the blackboard.
5. Put a negative sign (–) on the left side of the board and a positive sign (+)
on the right side of the board.
6. Ask: “Who or what gets in the way of your continuing to come to this class or
program?”
7. The groups brainstorm on possible barriers that would keep them from
completing their math goal.
8. Post their comments under the negative sign on the board and define those
listed as “barriers.”
9. Ask: “Who or what helps you to stay in this program?” and again, have
students brainstorm in their groups. Post their answers under the positive
sign.
10. We then look at the barriers and discuss which ones we could minimize.
Which ones could be dealt with by coming up with a back-up plan?
11. Share with the class John Comings’s finding that students who minimize
their barriers and accentuate their positive forces tend to reach their goals.
12. Give students a math goal sheet to think about and fill out. The sheet asks
them to list their possible barriers and how they will overcome them, and
how they can use their positive forces.
To read about research on persistence by John Comings, Pam Meader, and others, see
these National Center for Adult Learning and Literacy Web pages:
www.ncsall.net/index.php?id=791 and www.ncsall.net/?id=331.
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