Effective Goal Setting for Teachers

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Recommended: Why goal setting is important

In order to help the high-school principal to motivate the teacher by setting goals, it is important to first define the term ‘goal’. The term goal included the meanings of many related terms like objective, intention, purpose, aim and task (Locke and Latham 1990). However, there are differences between them. According to Locke and Latham (1990), goals can be defined as the purpose of an action, which is what one finally wants to achieve after we have done the tasks or completed an action. For example, a goal for the principal is to increase the results of his year 5 students in NAPLAN tests above national average to attract more students chooses his school. In addition, teachers can be affected mainly in three ways by a setting goal (Locke and Latham 1990). Firstly, goals can help to focus on goal-related actions. Secondly, it plays a role as an energizer; the more difficult the goal is the more efforts teachers will spend on it. Finally, individuals could become more persistent if their goals are important to them. In the process to achieving goals, there are different tasks have to be completed at different levels. Hence, compared with goal, tasks are the specific or detailed jobs that we do to achieve the final target. For instance, the goal for the principal is increase the overall results above national level by 15 marks at the end of this year. Several tasks need to complete to achieve the goal. For example, improve the reading skills by assigning three readings and related questions each week to students to raise the reading speed or have a one-to-one tutoring on the writings students submit in order to advance the skills on writing.

Dimensions of goals (Specificity and proximity)

As we know that, the final goal for th...

... middle of paper ...

...ated by the goal set by the principal. Additionally, the principal needs to provide feedback during the process and he needs to consider some unintended consequences might happen as well.

Works Cited

Locke, E. and Latham, G. 1990, A theory of goal setting and task performance, Patience Hall, New Jersey, viewed 07 April 2014, ISBN:0139131388.

Locke, E. 1996, ‘Applied and Preventive Psychology’, Motivation through conscious goal setting, vol.5, no.2, pp. 117-124, viewed 07 April 2014, ScienceDirect, doi: 10.1016/S0962-1849(96)80005-9.

Latham, G. 2007, Work motivation: history, theory, research and practice, Thousand Oaks, Sage, viewed 07 April 2014, ISBN: 9780761920182.

Zahorsky, D. n.d., The 5 steps to setting smart business goals, viewed 05 April 2014,

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