Developing and reporting on individual learning goals
Individual learning goals and targets aim to:
- improve students’ learning and achievement
- build students’ capacity to learn.
Individual learning goals and targets motivate students to:
- become more active participants in the learning process
- become independent learners
- identify what is important to their own learning
- achieve their full potential.
Research into the motivation and efficiency of students who set their own learning goals and targets indicates that students have more confidence to take on more challenging tasks, regardless of their ability.
Students tend to achieve more than when working on goals set for them by the teacher, with their motivation to improve and master a task increasing and their self-esteem remaining strong, even in the case of failure.
In the Foundation stage of schooling (Prep to Year 2), individual learning goals and targets may also relate to the 5 Outcomes of the Victorian Early Years Learning and Development Framework (VEYLDF). Visit Early childhood .
Schools can decide the best way to manage the development, monitoring and reporting of individual learning goals and targets. Developing, monitoring and reporting on learning goals and targets will generally work best when the process is clear and shared across the school. The process also involves conversations about learning between the student and the teacher. Planning for such conversations to occur in a productive and purposeful manner is critical to the success of this process.
When students are assisted to explore their own thinking and learning processes, they are drawn to think about the effectiveness of the strategies they used to achieve the learning goals they set. Planning what to do, monitoring progress towards achieving it and evaluating the outcome can help students take more control over their thinking and learning processes and equip them with learning to learn skills.
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Reviewed 17 June 2024