Goal setting in an online class

1. Goal setting in an online class How to set and achieve goals, setting your goals for this semester

2. 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.

3. 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.

4. 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?

5. 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.

6. 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…)

7. 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).

8. 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.

9. 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).

10. 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.

11. 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.

12. 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.

13. Goal Setting Process Set Goals Make plans Reflect Put Plans in Action

14. 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.

15. 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.

16. 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)

17. 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

18. 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.

19. 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).

20. A pictorial representation of goals Approach leads to Achievement Short term Process Long term Product leads to Avoidance streamlines the learning process Read text Review Blackboard, etc. daily efficiently A in class Passing Praxis Succeeding as teacher leads to

21. More about setting goals • Good goals are challenging, immediate, and specific

22. 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.

23. 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.

24. 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 half-heartedly 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.

25. 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.

26. 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.

27. 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.

28. 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.

29. 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?

30. Bottom Line: Here’s what you need to do Your goals should reflect these three activities…

31. Rewards program • Check out the pdf document “Awards Program.” Use this to help you make your plans.

32. 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.

33. 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)

34. 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.

35. 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.

36. Ways I can help you keep up Least assistance Most assistance Daily e-mails from you regarding your progress Goal setting at beginning of course Create calendar with me Reminder e-mail from me Phone calls from me Contact with university/ advisor

37. 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).

38. 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.

39. 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).

40. 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