Latest research on instruction

The evidence

The evidence this week is from the book, The new classroom instruction that works (Goodwin et., al.) I recommend the book as it summarises the latest, high-quality research into effective instruction. I’ll focus on research into student goal setting.

Key points

Learning requires sustained mental energy, known as effortful thinking.

• Achieving a goal feels good and creates a positive addiction.
• Setting and achieving goals makes learning more rewarding. Achieving a goal, even as small as ticking a correct answer, delivers a dopamine reward.
• Students are more likely to pursue goals they find meaningful and achievable.
• It is important to teach students, often directly, the link between effort and success.
• Two useful ideas are learned helplessness or learned optimism. Schools can teach optimism by:
  • engaging students in goal setting and monitoring their progress
  • explicitly teaching goal setting and why it matters.
  • ensuring goals and learning objectives are specific.
  • helping students monitor their progress towards goals.

Read a useful summary of the book.

What you can do:

• Explicitly teach goal setting to your staff and give them the opportunity to set goals (ideally with a coach or manager).
• Provide time to teach goal setting to your students.
• Allow time for students to meet (one-on-one) with a tutor to discuss their goals for the year.
• Ask students to record their goals and return to them each term.

I’ve also included some useful questions we use to begin goal-setting conversations with colleagues:

• In the last six months, what has changed the most in your life?
• Tell me about your role in the school.
• What did you do before that? How did you get into teaching?
• What do you enjoy most about your role?
• Clarifying statements, ‘so it’s ________’, ‘you think _______ is important’, ‘you really value ______ in your teaching.’
• So, thinking about this year, what are some things you are focussing on professionally?
• Clarifying statements, ‘what I’m hearing is’, ‘so, you really want ____________.’ ‘It’s important to you that _________’
• If you imagine yourself at the end of the year, what are some things you’d like to say you have achieved?

Happy coaching,
Mark