Ownership is the fuel for successful goals, and the New Year or a new marking period is an ideal time to discuss goal-setting with students. Gifted students, 15-50% of whom are underachieving (Morisano & Shore, 2010), can benefit from purposeful consideration of what they want to achieve and how they plan to reach their goals. How can we frame that conversation so that students are intrinsically motivated?
Goals that extend from the student should meet several criteria: independence, authenticity, and relevance.
Independence: Goals should be derived from the student’s interests and motivators (Morisano & Shore, 2010). For a highly academic student, grades are likely a consideration. For another student, writing a novel, developing an app, or creating a series of acrylic still-life paintings might be a motivation. The curriculum in a gifted program can be expanded to incorporate independent goals through the implementation of capstone projects, genius hours, interdisciplinary work, or even independent study.
Authenticity: Gifted students are particularly susceptible to becoming, one might say, cynical about the work if they do not recognize its intrinsic value. When students set their own goals around meaningful work, they are more likely to succeed (Rubinstein et al., 2012). For instance, rather than an essay or slide show about environmental issues, a student might consider how climate change impacts their town (e.g., heat waves, flooding, fires) and invent a solution targeting that problem.
Proximal/Reasonable: We want to raise the bar for our gifted students, but we do not want to encourage goals that are patently out of reach. Developing skills and confidence gradually allows a student to build mastery. For instance, if a summer internship as an MLB bat boy is a goal, what are other goals within that sphere that use similar goals? The bat boy application might require letters, calls, and networking, but running parallel to those actions, a student could consider related goals such as creating a statistics app based on batting averages or looking at problems faced in the dugout that could use a student-derived solution.
Furthermore, the simple act of engaging with students concerning their expectations and interests provides a boost in academics:
Simply Signing the Permission Form and Being Exposed to a Caring Adult May Affect Performance
– Rubinstein et al., 2012
These students… had been struggling in literature class for years, yet at the end of the first week of baseline data collection, every student had As or Bs … This initial and dramatic increase in grades inflated the baseline weekly grades, making it impossible to gauge the initial effectiveness of the intervention.
Supporting students in this journey requires additional training and time for educators (Jung et al., 2022). Training in authentic, project based learning as well as time to develop an in-house approach to student goal-setting should receive prime consdieration for the next PD cycle.
Classroom Resource: Goal Setting template
SOURCES
Jung, J. Y., Jackson, R. L., Townend, G., & McGregor, M. (2022). Equity in Gifted Education: The Importance of Definitions and a Focus on Underachieving Gifted Students. Gifted Child Quarterly, 66(2), 149–151. https://doi.org/10.1177/00169862211037945
Morisano D., Shore B. M. (2010). Can personal goal setting tap the potential of the gifted underachiever? Roeper Review, 32(4), 249-258. https://doi.org/10.1080/02783193.2010.508156
Rubenstein, L. D., Siegle, D., Reis, S. M., Mccoach, D. B., & Burton, M. G. (2012). A Complex quest: The development and research of underachievement interventions for gifted students. Psychology in the Schools, 49(7), 678–694. https://doi.org/10.1002/pits.21620
Gifted Weekly 