Goal Instructions Research Articles

Examining Qatar’s private and public-school teachers’ readiness for teaching about sustainability

ABSTRACT Understanding teacher readiness for Sustainable Development Goal (SDG) instruction is crucial. This study investigated Qatar’s preparatory and secondary public and private school teachers’ perceived readiness to teach Education for Sustainable Development (ESD) and Global Citizenship Education (GCED) across three dimensions: alignment, capabilities and engagement. Although all teachers surveyed (N = 965) self-reported high readiness rates (∼80%), important differences emerged between private and public school teachers. Private school teachers reported more alignment, enhanced capabilities and increased engagement with ESD/GCED than public school teachers. GCED themes were taught more frequently than ESD themes for both school systems. Detailed discussion regarding these results is provided.

End-state comfort planning after explicit goal instructions in children with and without probable developmental coordination disorder

BackgroundWhen completing grip-selection tasks, healthy adults generally plan for the most comfortable end-posture which is termed the end-state comfort (ESC) effect. Children with and without developmental coordination disorder (DCD) are less likely to plan for ESC which begs the question as to whether they are not able to perform this type of planning or whether they prioritize other aspects of the task. Aims(1) Examine if children with and without probable DCD (pDCD) are able to plan for ESC if they are explicitly instructed to and (2) if this transfers to another similar task. (3) Examine if children with and without pDCD perceive the level of comfort of the grips that they use differently and if this relates to ESC planning. MethodsTwelve children with and 12 children without probable DCD (pDCD) (aged 5–9 years) received a 10-min training session in which children were explicitly instructed to end their movement in ESC, after which they formulated their own plan to reach this goal. The study consisted of a pre-post-test design in which changes in the proportion of ESC were analyzed on the task that was trained as well as on an untrained transfer-task. Furthermore, the perceived level of comfort was examined. ResultsBoth groups of children showed a higher proportion of ESC on the post-test compared with the pre-test, on the task that was trained as well as on the transfer-task. There were no group differences regarding the perceived level of comfort of the different grip postures. ConclusionThe majority of the children with and without pDCD seems to be able to adjust their planning strategy and prioritize ESC if they are explicitly instructed to.

Applying SMART Goal Intervention Leads to Greater Goal Attainment, Need Satisfaction and Positive Affect

Previous research suggests that planning interventions lead to increased goal attainment, while other research suggests that goal attainment leads to increased well-being. This research integrates these two sets of research findings by investigating the effectiveness of one goal planning intervention, the SMART goal program, on goal attainment, and thus need satisfaction and well-being, in university students. An experimental design across a one-week period was employed to test whether participants in the experimental group, who received the SMART goal instructions, better obtained their goal in comparison to control group participants who did not receive those specific instructions. Findings indicated that the SMART goal program led to greater rated goal attainment and need satisfaction, but not greater subjective well-being (SWB). Nevertheless, one component of SWB, positive affect, was greater in the Experimental group. Type of individually chosen self-concordant goal content had no impact on whether participants attained their goal.

Human Behavior Intention Estimation of Goal Instruction Based on Saliency Map in Gaze Controlled Teaching System for Omni-Directional Wheelchair

Human Behavior Intention Estimation of Goal Instruction Based on Saliency Map in Gaze Controlled Teaching System for Omni-Directional Wheelchair

Synergies: effects of source representation and goal instructions on evidence quality, reasoning, and conceptual integration during argumentation-driven inquiry

This study examined how differing instructional scaffolding influenced the actual use of evaluation skills to improve argumentation quality during college science inquiry. Source representation scaffolds supported multi-faceted reflection of complex source properties while managing cognitive load. Students were given an online annotation tool (treatment) in addition to a checklist (control). Goal instructions intended to induce critical task perceptions and evaluation standards. Balanced reasoning goals (treatment) replaced a typical persuasion goal (control). Students from one introductory biology course were assigned to one of the two by two combinations, which was implemented over one academic semester. We examined student arguments during and after interventions respectively to measure evidence quality, reasoning, and conceptual integration. Overall, scaffolds did not influence argumentation independently; rather we detected complex interaction effects across scaffolds and classroom dynamics. For low-prior knowledge groups, annotation increased argumentation quality when complemented by balanced goals. For mixed-prior knowledge groups, annotation alone impacted on argumentation independent of goal instructions. Transfer effects were marginal yet promising for low-prior knowledge groups. The results supported the synergistic integration of two scaffolding functionality, yet suggested possible difficulties in using and sustaining scaffold effects in complex classroom situations.

The effects of source representation and goal instructions on college students' information evaluation behavior change

We investigated ways of scaffolding information evaluation behavior (IEB) in online inquiry contexts. Previous instructional support simplified IEB and rarely critically addressed the cognitive load that accompanies multiple representations or naïve task perception that hinders critical evaluation. We conducted a longitudinal, 2 × 2 quasi-experimental study in an introductory college biology course, varying (A) Source Representation Scaffolds to address limited cue awareness and cognitive load and (B) Goal Instructions to address task perception. For treatment A, students were given an annotation tool in addition to a checklist (Control A). For treatment B, instead of persuasion goal instructions (Control B), written task directions prompted student to consider alternative ideas (balanced reasoning goals). We measured students' IEB four times. We also measured individual task perception and cognitive capacity. Multilevel analyses identified the specific nature of changes in IEB. On average, IEB did not improve much in the baseline group while task perception and cognitive capacity differentiated IEB scores. Conversely, both annotation and balanced reasoning goals yielded improved gains in IEB, but there was a negative interaction effect when they were combined. The results demonstrate the benefits of annotation and balanced reasoning goals but suggest the need to address possible difficulties in using multiple scaffolds.

Effects of Goal Instructions, Strategy, and Role Assignment on Reducing My-Side Bias When Writing Arguments

マイサイドバイアスとは, 反対立場に有利な理由に比べ, 賛成立場に有利な理由が多く産出される傾向を指す。マイサイドバイアスが強い意見文は説得力, 信頼性ともに低く評価される傾向にある。そこで本研究では, 児童の意見文産出におけるマイサイドバイアスの低減を目的とし, 目標提示とそれに伴う方略提示, および役割付与の効果を検証した。4年生65名を対象とした予備実験の結果, 反対立場の読み手を想定するという条件下において, 児童は反論を想定するものの, その反論に対する再反論は十分に行わないことが示された。そこで, 5年生90名を対象とした本実験では, 反論への再反論を促すため, (1) 反対立場の優勢性の検討, (2) 理由の明確化, (3) 読み手に対する意識, を促進するための目標を与え, 目標提示のみが行われる「対照群」, 目標に加えて目標を達成するための方略が示される「方略提示群」, 目標と方略の提示に加え, 目標達成を義務とする役割が与えられる「方略・役割群」とで産出される意見文の比較を行った。その結果, 方略提示によって反論に対する再反論の産出数が増加し, さらに役割付与がその効果を促進することが明らかになった。

The Effects of Nonconscious and Conscious Goals on Performance

The social loafing paradigm (Harkins & Szymanski, 1987) was used to examine how nonconscious motivation combines with the effects of the potential for self- and external evaluation to affect task performance. Before generating uses for a common object, participants were primed with an achievement goal or not, given one of three conscious goal instructions, and told that their outputs would be evaluated by the experimenter or not. Results suggest that the effects of the nonconscious prime are shaped by the way that the task is defined and the manner in which the participants consciously respond to these instructions.

How Can Leaders Foster Team Learning? Effects of Leader-Assigned Mastery and Performance Goals and Psychological Safety

ABSTRACT Learning and adapting to change are imperative as teams today face unprecedented change. Yet, an important part of learning involves challenging assumptions and addressing differences of opinion openly within a group—the kind of behaviors that pose the potential for embarrassment or threat. How can leaders foster an environment in which team members feel it is safe to take interpersonal risks in order to learn? In a study of 71 teams, we found that psychological safety and learning behavior were higher for teams with mastery than performance goal instructions or no goal instructions. Team psychological safety mediated the relationship between mastery and performance goal instructions and learning behavior. Findings contribute to our understanding of how leader-assigned goals are related to psychological safety and learning behavior in a team context, and suggest approaches to foster such processes.

Goal Instructions, Response Format, and Idea Generation in Groups

This study examined the separate and joint impact of two standard, but seemingly conflicting brainstorming rules on idea generation in interacting and nominal groups: the free-wheeeling rule, which calls for the production of dissimilar ideas, and the build-on rule, which encourages idea combination and improvement. We also tested whether the superior performance of interacting groups found in several previous studies using a brainwriting technique may have been due to the different response formats employed by groups and individuals. Interacting groups and individuals generated ideas for improving their university under one of three sets of instructions. In one condition, participants were given the build-on rule, but not the free-wheeling rule, and in another condition, the reverse was true. In the third condition, both rules were provided. When the two rules were presented separately, interacting and nominal groups responded similarly, generating ideas from more semantic categories in response to the free-wheeling rule, and generating more practical ideas in response to the build-on rule. But when those rules were presented simultaneously, interacting groups generated ideas from fewer semantic categories than did nominal groups. In addition, interacting groups produced more ideas overall than nominal groups, but only when the two used different response formats.

Do Goals Matter in Engineering Education? An Exploration of How Goals Influence Outcomes for FIRST Robotics Participants

It has long been recognized that engineers need a variety of skills, including technical and social, to succeed professionally. Attempts to include social skills (i.e., communication, teamwork, and leadership) in engineering education are relatively recent (i.e., within the last decade). Thus, the current study investigates whether social goals influence academic and social outcomes. Four hundred and three highschool aged FIRST robotics participants (262 male; 146 female; 22 not specified) completed a survey about their experiences in FIRST. Prior to completing the survey, participants learned that an important goal of FIRST was a) social networking, b) academic learning, or c) no goal. Academic and social outcomes were assessed at the beginning and end of the season, but the goal instructions were administered only at the beginning of the season. The findings show that the goals promoted can dramatically influence social and academic outcomes. The implications this has for engineering programs are discussed.

The Interactive Effects of Self-Esteem, Goal Instructions, and Incentives on Personal Goals and Goal Attainment

An individual's personal goal is one of the strongest motivators, yet its determinants and processes are not well understood, especially those dealing with person–situation interaction. This research examines the interactive effects of monetary incentive types, self-set goal level instructions, and self-esteem on personal goals and goal attainment. A laboratory research study with a sample of 300 students found a statistically significant three-way interaction among monetary incentive types (pay for performance [piece rate], pay for goal attainment [GA-bonus], and pay for participation [hourly flat rate]), self-set goal level instructions (an instruction to set hard, easy, any, and no goals), and self-esteem in influencing personal goals and goal attainment. The highest level of personal goals (and the lowest level of goal attainment) was achieved by high-self-esteem participants who were paid for performance and instructed to set hard goals. This research shows that person–situation interaction is the mo...

A Story About a Stupid Person Can Make You Act Stupid (or Smart): Behavioral Assimilation (and Contrast) as Narrative Impact

Media priming refers to the residual, often unintended consequences of media use on subsequent perceptions, judgments, and behavior. Previous research showed that the media can prime behavior that is in line with the primed traits or concepts (assimilation). However, assimilation is expected to be less likely and priming may even yield reverse effects (contrast) when recipients have a dissimilarity testing mindset. Based on previous research on narrative comprehension and experience as well as research on media priming, a short-term influence of stories on cognitive performance is predicted. In an experimental study, participants (N = 81) read a story about a stupid soccer hooligan. As expected, participants who read the story without a special processing instruction performed worse in a knowledge test than a control group who read an unrelated text. Participants with a reading goal instruction to find dissimilarities between the self and the main protagonist performed better than participants who read the story without this instruction. The effects of reported self-activation and story length were further considered. Future inquiries with narratives as primes and contrast effects in media effects research are discussed.

Achievement Goals, Feedback, and Task Performance

Prior research indicates that instructions to focus attention on learning versus performance and the nature of feedback provided have distinct implications for subsequent task performance. We first examined how assigned learning and performance goals and feedback valence interact to determine performance change. Individuals with learning goal instructions performed better after negative feedback but worse after positive feedback. In Study 2, we found that implicit theory, an individual difference that is antecedent to general goal orientation, interacted with learning/performance goal instructions to influence performance change after negative feedback. In both studies, goal instructions influenced performance attributions and affective states, but these variables did not mediate the effects of the goal instructions or performance feedback. We discuss the implications of these results for academic and employment settings.

Alea iacta est. Efectos de la Claridad vs. Ambigüedad en la Meta y los Planes de Acción sobre el Logro de Metas

It has been established that having clear goals is a d condition to achieve objectives. In the following research we will if having clear goals is a needed condition to achieve goal. Clear goal instruction triggered better performance only if the individual posses adequate competencies to develop task (Study 1); otherwise goal instruction was more effective (Study 2). When variable planning was added (Study 3) it verifies that clear goal setting are not always more effective, since ambiguous goal instruction was more effective under the condition of not planning. Whenever the individuals were able to plan their actions, there were differences found between clear goal instruction and ambiguous goal instruction. Theoretical and applied implications of the present findings were discussed.

Dispositional and situational learning goals and children's self‐regulation

Little research has examined interactions between self-reported dispositional and experimentally manipulated situational group orientations in their effect on self-regulation. The aim of the study was to investigate the effect of dispositional and situational learning goal orientation on children's self-efficacy and engagement and persistence at a puzzle task. A self-report learning goal orientation scale was completed by 110 children, aged 9-11 years. Fifty-three children (24 girls) selected to be high and low on the scale participated in the experiment. Half of the children were given instructions designed to evoke learning goals, while the remainder received performance goal instructions. Children attempted a difficult puzzle task on two occasions, when measures were made of self-regulatory behaviours. Children assigned to the learning goal instruction were more likely to persist at the task until the end of the allotted time, displayed more on-task behaviour and engaged in more autonomous help-seeking. These effects were more pronounced following the first task, which all children had been unable to complete. Dispositional task orientation did not predict individual differences on these measures. The findings are interpreted in terms of learned helplessness and self-worth theory.

Enhancing online collaborative argumentation through question elaboration and goal instructions

Abstract Computer‐supported collaborative argumentation can improve understanding and problem‐solving skills. This study uses WebCT to explore the improvement of argumentation in asynchronous, web‐based discussions through goal instructions, which are statements at the end of a discussion prompt indicating what students should achieve. In a previous study (Nussbaum 2005), the goal instruction ‘generate as many reasons as possible’ resulted in more balanced argumentation in an online environment. This study attempts to replicate this finding. It also examines the role of prior attitudes, knowledge and interest, and also the effect of elaborating on possible lines of reasoning in the question prompt. The goal instruction to generate as many reasons as possible (goal/no goal) was crossed with question elaboration (elaborated/unelaborated question) in a 2 × 2 randomized design using 131 undergraduates. Half of the participants were randomly assigned to complete the attitude survey before discussion. Results indicated that, when prior knowledge was controlled, the reason goal instruction positively affected argument development and opposing view exploration, but only for high‐issue knowledge students. The sheer volume of notes created by the online environment may have caused cognitive overload for low‐issue knowledge students. Question elaboration promoted balanced argumentation for all students, but especially those with low knowledge.

Africa-America Institute-Iowa Math and Science Professional Development Workshop: A Distance Learning Approach for Math and Science Literacy in Africa

Six African countries participated in an intercontinental professional development workshop developed by the science and math staff at the University of Iowa and supported by the Africa-America Institute. The 11-day workshop was designed to produce changes in goal setting, assessment practices, instruction, and curriculum structures for high school teachers. The article provides a detailed description of the workshop and discusses evidence of workshop successes. Preworkshop and postworkshop vision statements and curriculum units were used to track the progression of five Kenyan educators as they moved toward constructivist-based practices. Teachers enhanced their views of science and math learning outcomes and learning environment as the workshop progressed. Specifically, teachers moved from emphasizing better grades and exam scores to greater student use of science and math skills. They also shifted from a heavily teacher-centered classroom view to a more student-centered classroom view.

The effect of goal instructions and need for cognition on interactive argumentation

This study examines the effect of goal instructions on students’ reasoning and argumentation in an interactive context (discussing a topic on-line). Goal instructions specify the goal of a discussion. General goals (to persuade or explore) were crossed with specific goals (to generate reasons or counterarguments/rebuttals) in a 3 × 3 randomized design using 224 undergraduates. The design also controlled for need for cognition, which measures dispositions to think. The goal instruction to “generate as many reasons as possible” resulted in deeper, more contingent arguments, closer to Mercer’s (1996) notion of exploratory talk, whereas the persuade goal resulted in arguments that were more adversarial and somewhat better supported. The other goals had less dramatic effects. Need for cognition also predicted total argument claims and depth. These findings have important implications for building richer interactive discussions that promote the integration of ideas.

Positive Affect as Implicit Motivator: On the Nonconscious Operation of Behavioral Goals.

Recent research has revealed that nonconscious activation of desired behavioral states--or behavioral goals--promotes motivational activity to accomplish these states. Six studies demonstrate that this nonconscious operation of behavioral goals emerges if mental representations of specific behavioral states are associated with positive affect. In an evaluative-conditioning paradigm, unobtrusive linking of behavioral states to positive, as compared with neutral or negative, affect increased participants' wanting to accomplish these states. Furthermore, participants worked harder on tasks that were instrumental in attaining behavioral states when these states were implicitly linked to positive affect, thereby mimicking the effects on motivational behavior of preexisting individual wanting and explicit goal instructions to attain the states. Together, these results suggest that positive affect plays a key role in nonconscious goal pursuit. Implications for behavior-priming research are discussed.