Mathematics and Numeracy
Goal Setting in Maths
‘Setting goals helps people to trigger new behaviours, guide focus and sustain momentum in life. Goals also help promote a sense of self-mastery. In the end, you can’t manage what you don’t measure, and you can’t improve upon something that you don’t properly manage.’
Many adults and young people find goal setting to be quite challenging, both deciding what to do and sticking to it. So, we are working with Math Pathways to develop this skill in our students here at MPSC, by encouraging our students to reflect on their past learning and making realistic goals for their current and future learning.
How it works
‘Students are prompted at the end of each cycle to think about the last few weeks of math, using the Stop, Start, Continue goal setting framework.
After a student has set their first goal, each subsequent time they set a goal, they are asked to review and rate their previous goal. This will prompt the student to have more ownership over their goals over time.
When the student has selected their goal, their goal will be visible to them at all times in the new “goal signpost”. This goal signpost is very important for two main reasons:
- Students have a constant reminder of their self-improvement goal and
- Students will be much more motivated as the goal originated from their own metacognition. It’s well known that goals which you set yourself are much more powerful than goals you might perceive as being prescribed by someone else.’
