GOAL SETTING RESOURCES FOR ADULT STUDENTS

Tools that Help Identify and Monitor Student Goals

Lunch and Learn, February 13, 2009 

Objective: To explore tools that can help students identify their goals and monitor their progress toward reaching them. 

If you don’t know where you are going, how will you know when you get there? So often, our students express goals that do not reflect what they really want. It is no wonder that they don’t persist.

This session is not about clarifying goals to meet NRS standards, although those are included among the links. This session is designed to connect students to what they are learning, and to connect what they are learning to what they want or need.

From Malcolm Knowles to Raymond Wlodkowski and other adult education researchers, the message is, Adults learn when the can associate what they want or need with what they are learning.

“I want my GED,” becomes more meaningful when stated as, “I want to go to become a nurse, and I need my GED to get there.” "I want to learn English," takes on more meaning when stated as "I want to work at El Toro's Meat Processing Company and I need to speak English to be employed there."   

SMART (Specific, Measurable, Attainable, Realistic, Timely/Trackable) is recognized by many as a simple acronym for goal setting. You’ll find it listed on many of the sites listed in this session. 

General Goal-Setting Resources 

·http://www.goalforit.com/ - Join the site (free) and start identifying your goals.  Go to http://www.goalforit.com/landing/goals.html?gclid=CLK2juLS0pgCFRMUagodczQf1A - There is a tutorial on the page that walks you through the process. You can also read goals set by others and get ideas on what they did to succeed in reaching their goals. Here’s someone who wants to get her GED:http://www.goalforit.com/goals/1559.html

· http://www.helium.com/items/790099-adult-education-exploring-where-goal-setting-can-go-wrong - Setting goals with SMART.

· http://www.sbctc.ctc.edu/college/_e-abe_goalsetting.aspx - This article describes well what we face in adult ed in setting goals with students. Follow the link to the interview process to open the following guide, linked below.

·http://www.sbctc.ctc.edu/docs/education/abe_pds/teachers/ed_interview.pdf - This PDF file contains excellent resources that you can adapt to your program: forms, suggestions, and lots more. Don’t be distracted by the blank pages. Look at the Contents page and go from there. Page 109 begins the Goal-Setting section, with posters, ideas, forms and strategies, including the popular SMART outline. Brought to you from the Washington State Boards for Community and Technical Colleges (SBCTC).

·http://www.nrsweb.org/docs/tips/NRSGoalsSetting.pdf - Direct from the NRS. Includes SMART and other tips for setting goals with adult learners.   

· http://www.doe.mass.edu/acls/pawg/gswreport.pdf -Goal Setting Workgroup from the Massachusetts Department of Education  Adult and Community Learning Service.

·http://www.nald.ca/fulltext/hudson/adult_ed/page_v.htm - This is a thorough document, which sets goals in each area of adult education.  The Adult Education Resource Guide and Learning Standards was developed utilizing the skills and expertise of adult educators around the State. Teachers, counselors, and program administrators were chosen from a list of volunteers and assigned to four different committees: communications, mathematics, English for speakers of other languages (ESOL), and General Education Development test (GED). Goals are stated in terms of standards, which could then be translated into student goals, once interest areas and assessments are established with students. (University of the state of New York)

· http://home.att.net/~nickols/goals_grid.htm -The Goals Grid: A Tool for Clarifying Goals and Objectives

-http://www.doe.state.in.us/sdfsc/pdf/writing-gos.pdf - Examine the forms at the end of the document and read the box for student objectives.

ACTIVITY:

1.  Examine 2 goals for writing and math, along with measurable objectives and assessment that support those goals.

2.  Create a goal within your learning area, with measurable objectives to be reached within one week or one month. 

3. Share your goal and objectives with the group.

Additional Goal Resources Related to Workplace Achievement 

·http://www.pawerc.org/foundationskills/cwp/view.asp?a=250&Q=115503&foundationskillsNav=|6592|&foundationskillsNav=|6196| - From the Pennsylvania Department of Education, ABLE (Adult Basic and Literacy Education). This page has huge resources that can be used to visualize the marriage among foundation skills in adult ed. Review the many valuable links on the page. Scroll down, and click on Using the Foundation Skills Framework for Goal Setting.

·http://tech.worlded.org/docs/maththing/ny1p8.htm -The Math Matrix is an graphic illustration of the inter-relationship of foundation skills and the basic mathematics topics. This is a very simple table that could be printed or recreated, and used with each student if goals are to be set in math.

·http://www.pawerc.org/foundationskills/lib/foundationskills/2004_activity_guide_2.2.pdf - This is a highly resourceful guide, which explores goal-setting questions for adult learners: Exploring Work-Based Foundation Skills in the ABLE Classroom: Instructional Activities and Resources to Use with Adult Learners

.http://wdr.doleta.gov/SCANS/ -In 1990, the Secretary of Labor appointed a commission to determine the skills our young people need to succeed in the world of work. The commission's fundamental purpose was to encourage a high-performance economy characterized by high-skill, high-wage employment. This report also has links to several other sites with resources related to SCANS.

Other

Goals played a huge role in Alfred Adler's work. Examine the following site for a basic description of Adler's views and practice. Search the word "goal" and you'll find it sprinkled throughout the page. --             http://www.trans4mind.com/mind-development/adler.html  

www.aknurse.org/NewSite/documents/verbs.doc  - Measurable verbs to be used in writing objectives.