Welcome to Teaching Tips Thursday! You’ll find a tip from the Teaching & Creativity Center every other week.
Setting Goals
By establishing goals for ourselves and encouraging our students to set goals, we lay the foundation for long-term vision and short-term motivation. Creating goals can help us focus on acquiring knowledge and skills as well as organize time effectively. The beginning of a new academic year is a good time to write S.M.A.R.T. goals for ourselves and to ask our students to use the same criteria in setting their own goals.
A S.M.A.R.T. goal is specific, measurable, achievable, results-focused, and time bound. A definition of each of those criteria follows:
Specific: Goals should be simply written and clearly define the action(s) to be taken. Think about what the goal will accomplish, and how and why it will be accomplished.
Measurable: You have tangible evidence that you have accomplished the goal. Think about the specific ways you will know whether or not you have reached the goal.
Achievable: Goals should be challenging but doable. Do you have the requisite knowledge, abilities, and resources to accomplish the goal? Is your goal challenging but not defeating?
Results-focused: Goals should measure outcomes, not activities. What is the benefit of achieving your goal? What is the result of the goal?
Time-bound: Goals should be linked to a timeframe that creates a sense of urgency. What is your completion date? Is it close enough to motivate you to take action?2
1 https://www.mindtools.com/page6.html
2 https://www.rochester.edu/working/hr/performancemgt/SMART_Goals.pdf
Julie Damerell
Transitional Studies
08/28/2014 |