An article in today’s Wall Street Journal about weight-loss prompted me to write this post.
The Power of a Gentle Nudge: Phone Calls, Even Voice Recordings, Can Get People to Go to the Gym talks about a successful experiment where they had people and/or computers call people regularly to remind them to follow-through on their commitments to exercise. Those that received both the human and computerized reminders did a much better job (the human calls did the best) than those who did not get the calls.
It reminded me why I have my students choose “buddies” with whom they check-in weekly on the progress they are making with the goals they set for themselves.
Since I wanted to share this Wall Street Journal article, I thought it would be a good opportunity to collect all my posts on student goal-setting in one place.
You might also be interested in My Best Posts On “Motivating” Students.
Here are My Best Posts On Students Setting Goals:
Student Goal-Setting Lesson I’m Trying Out On Monday
Report On How Goal-Setting Lesson Went
“What Can You Do To Finish The Year Strong?”
What Does A Study On Voter Turn-Out Have To Do With Working With Students?
Intriguing Study On Self-Control
“Will we succeed? The science of self-motivation”
More Info On Asking If You Can Achieve Your Goals (Instead of Just Setting Them)
Avoiding Goal-Setting Problems — In The Classroom & In Education Policy
“Learning Goals” versus “Performance Goals”
“Can setting goals make you happier?”
“Making Kids Work on Goals (And Not Just In Soccer)”
Research shows that feelings of powerlessness makes you less likely to be able to plan and focus on achieving your goals. I’m adding this info to this list and it’s certainly related to New Study Says Freedom & Autonomy More Important Than Money (& Classroom Incentives?).
Easy to Visualize Goal Is Powerful Motivator to Finish a Race or a Task is a report on a study that found it’s effective for people to actually see that they are making progress towards making their goal. I think that reinforces the importance of having students regularly reflect on how they are doing, and to, as the researchers suggest, even consider writing or drawing some kind of graph showing their progress. I’m not talking about some big public achievement chart and gold stars here — just one that students keep for themselves.
I recently found a video clip that I’m wondering if it might be a helpful addition to that lesson plan. In this clip from Cinderella Man (which is a great movie), James Braddock (played by Russell Crowe) is almost knocked-out, but then he flashes back to the reason why he returned to the rink – to win and make money to support his family (he sees images from his family and their hardships). He then becomes re-energized and wins the fight.
The movie is rated PG-13, and the clip is pretty bloody (boys will love it for sure). I’m thinking of showing it and then asking students why they think he came back to win the fight, and then talk about how in the face of adversity having goals and remembering them can help keep us focused. Check out the clip and let me know if you think it would be effective or not.
If YouTube is blocked at your site, you can also find it at Movie Clips.
A new study finds that sharing a common goal with others increases the motivation people have to be successful. It’s not a brilliant revelation, but it did get me thinking a bit about one thing I do with student goal-setting. After students choose their goals, I also let them choose their own “buddies” to support each other. I wonder if I should be a little more strategic about that and encourage them to choose a partner who has a similar goal?
If You Plan, Then You’ll Do… But It Helps to Have a Friend is another report on what I believe is the same study.
Feel free to share your own student goal-setting strategies in the comments section of this post.
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You might also want to explore the 450 other “The Best…” lists I’ve compiled.
