A friend recently showed me the results of his “Screen Time” tool on his iPhone, which tracks how much time he spends looking at his phone and what applications he’s been using, such as web browsers, social media, games, and entertainment. He was embarrassed by the hours he was spending on social media, and tracking the amount of time spent has helped remind him to put the phone down and do something more productive towards his goal of being more social with people around him. A good next step to drive long-term change is to set daily goals.
Daily goals are distinctly narrow in time and focus, as opposed to life goals, annual goals, or goals for projects and professional work. A daily goal should be motivating because it is personally meaningful and reflects personal interests.
In the context of a high school classroom, a daily goal can help students engage with the content by making connections to their own life through that goal. Daily goals at the start of a lesson aren’t valuable if students don’t have experience setting goals. They need to be shown how to set them, and especially how they are different for an individual classroom setting. For inexperienced students, goal-setting should be taught in a similar fashion that content, procedures, and learning strategies are taught: Through engagement, modeling and representing the concept in multiple forms, and giving the students as many options as possible for how and why they set their goals.
A good example of a daily learning goal during a lesson about the interdependencies of ecosystems, is to find out what are three of the most important biotic or abiotic factors in a given ecosystem that, if disturbed or removed, would have the greatest effects on changing, improving, or destroying an ecosystem. This goal may be derived from and supported by a variety of personal interests such as world politics, life science, or outdoor recreation. This goal would drive a student’s questioning and research throughout the lesson and promote learning in the content area that applies to other fields of study.
Setting a goal, reflecting on your progress, and revising your goal (or changing it) based on that reflection can give one a sense of empowerment by recognizing success and exercising free will to choose a destiny. One can work towards achievement and greater understanding and then may change their destiny as they learn more.
Intelligent Design 