Setting Academic Goals for the New Year
Every January, well-meaning goal-setters announce their plans to lose weight, make more money, declutter, quit imbibing and so on. Although experts agree that it’s better to keep trying than never to attempt change at all, only about 9 percent of people who set New Year’s Resolutions actually achieve them. With this in mind, how can you expect your student to achieve their academic goals when so many adults fail at their own attempts to improve themselves? The answer may lie in HOW you set goals.
1. Set personally meaningful goals.
If you’ve ever set extrinsically motivated goals—that is, goals that appear important to others but weren’t necessarily personally meaningful—you probably struggled to achieve them. That’s because studies show that this type of motivation tends to create higher levels of stress, which can be detrimental to performance.
Pressuring your student to get better grades, achieve higher standardized test scores or get accepted into a particular college won’t necessarily help them. When setting academic goals for the new year, encourage your student to look within for motivation. What do they want to achieve and why?
Start by asking them to create their own list of academic goals, providing at least two reasons why each achievement is important. Intrinsically motivated goals tend to empower students to maintain excitement around their mission long enough to see it to fruition.
2. Set S.M.A.R.T. goals.
The S.M.A.R.T. acronym, which stands for Specific, Measurable, Achievable, Relevant and Time-bound, provides clearly defined objectives for anyone setting goals. Regardless of whether you’re applying these criteria to weight loss, quitting smoking, making more money or academic goals, having objectives that are clearly defined will help you increase your chances of success. Additionally, you’ll know when you’ve missed certain milestones so you can get back on track.
To better understand each of these parameters, ask your student to answer the following questions:
- Specific: Spell out each individual goal by asking “What do I want to accomplish?” (e.g., “I want to get a B or above in all of my classes next semester”) and “What steps do I need to take to achieve this goal?” (e.g., I need to complete every homework assignment to the best of my ability and turn it in on time. I need to study for an hour night in the three nights before a test and take action if there is an opportunity to improve my grade through extra credit or redoing the test.”)
- Measurable: Qualifying goals helps students know when they’ve achieved a goal or missed certain milestones so they can get back on track. Have you student list measurable goals (e.g., “I want to get a 1300 on my SATs”) and milestones against which they can measure their trajectory (e.g., “I’ll need to get at least a 1200 on my PSATs to know I’m close to achieving my goal with a bit more studying and practice tests.”)
- Achievable: A struggling student who has barely maintained a C in all their classes isn’t going to shift to straight A’s overnight. Setting unrealistic goals is only going to harm your student’s self-esteem when they fall short. Instead, ask them, “What attainable goals feel realistic based on your motivation, resources and time?”
- Relevant: Do your student’s academic goals align with their long-term objectives? It’s a lot harder to motivate someone to reach goals that aren’t relevant to their own hopes and dreams. A tech-savvy 13-year-old who talks about becoming a video game designer may not see the value of getting an A in history class. Setting relevant goals comes back to intrinsic motivation. Consider asking your student questions about goals that might be more relevant to their current personal interests, such as, “What education do most video game designers need to be successful?” and “In which of your current classes do you think you’ll garner the most valuable information and skills to pursue this dream?”
- Time-bound: Once your student has started thinking about setting academic goals, they’ll need to attach some time-constrained parameters to them. Encourage them to start at the end (the goal) and work their way backward to the present by asking these questions: “What day do report cards come out next semester?” “How many weeks do you have between now and then?” “How many tests, projects or homework assignments do you have between now and then?” “What milestones can you set along the way to know you’re on the right path to achieving your goals?”
3. Set positive goals.
Look no further than your own goal-setting successes and failures to understand the importance of setting positive goals. Research has shown that people who set performance-avoidance goals (“I don’t want to get an F in math”) actually tend to perform worse than those who don’t set any goals.
When working with your student on setting achievement-based—rather than avoidance-based— goals, don’t be afraid to gently guide them toward positive reframing. For example, if they say, “I don’t want to get another D on an English paper,” ask them, “If you were aiming to get an A on your next English paper, what are some of the things you would be doing differently in the weeks leading up to it?”
4. Set goals to improve, not perfect, your life.
Because fear of failure is a real thing for most of us, your student’s goal-setting plan should be one of improvement, not perfection. Expecting a student with D’s and F’s to suddenly finish the semester with straight A’s is not only unrealistic, but also defeatist.
Although setting goals for grades and standardized test scores has its place, sometimes a growth mindset creates just enough “breathing room” for a student to soar.
Encourage your student to set goals using phrases like “improve,” “learn” and “get better at.” Rather than, “Get an A on my next science test,” they may create a goal to “Research three effective ways to study before an exam so I can get better at taking tests.”
Here are some free downloadable templates for academic goal-setting.
Put these academic goal-setting techniques to use with your student as you determine the best way to approach the rest of the school year. Remember to praise effort over intelligence, regardless of the outcome. The results may surprise you and you’ll be giving your student the tools they need to find success beyond the academic year.
