Forethought Phase Step 1:
First step of creating a goal: wanting to learn something new
Over the last couple of weeks, I have learned a great amount about goals, motivation, self-efficacy and how all of this leads to a self-regulated learner. I have learned the importance of continuous feedback and providing students with opportunities to self-reflect in order to learn about themselves and grow.
My distal goal for this course is to be able to learn how to find a work/life balance between all my responsibilities between now and March (re-starting work, pushing out next items for my personal floral business, and optimally raising my 8 month old as best as I can before I have to go back to work).
How will I build a feedback loop so I am not only given the time to self-assess, but I am able to attain feedback from others who can help me achieve a more manageable process to achieve this goal? This goal resonates with me because it is something that I find is always lingering in the back of my mind: how can I do my masters, work full time, raise a child, run a house, and also maintain my small floral business? How can I do it all? Can I even do it all? Is there people I can consult to help me along the way? Am I just fixated on my future goal too heavily, thus leading me to become overwhelmed? What does it even matter if I don’t finish “on time”? Why do I even have a timeline for myself?! So many questions! I am hoping that by finding a level of balance, I will be able to make my day-to-day events less stressful, develop stronger self efficacy, stay motivated (something that often decreases when the distal goal seems so far away) and ultimately gain some strategies that will enable me to stay become self-regulated.
I think by achieving this goal, I will be able to develop professionally and personally. Reaching this goal will not only help me further develop the skills needed to take the next step in my teaching career (time management, coordination relationships, challenging myself, helping others work with their strengths and areas of improvement), but it will also help me focus my then freed up time on myself so I can become a stronger individual, wife, and mother. I think by achieving this goal, I will be able to focus on my own personal health without having to worry about all my other responsibilities 24/7. One thing that we often neglect when we become busy with life’s trials and tribulations, is ourselves, and I think that by eliminating and achieving some of my goals, I will be able to focus back on keeping myself healthy, which ultimately will help me in my professional and personal life.
Broken down, my goal is:
Challenging: I think that the next few months are going to entail some serious reconfiguring of my current lifestyle, but I am going to take it as a challenge, and not as something that is unattainable because with some planning, consistent feedback, and reflection, it can be done.
Significant: I think that this goal is also going to help me develop my self-regulation skills because a goal without any meaning attached to it, is not going to be achieved. A point that was reiterated multiple times throughout the readings was the idea of “intrinsic interest” in order to stay motivated. So, what is my interest in this specific goal? I want to be able to gain the skills needed to balance my life better, and not only have a lifestyle where I am constantly working, and exuding energy. I need to be able to take a step back, and have some “down time” in order to be a successful mother, wife, teacher, and entrepreneur.
The learning is in the process: I will successfully achieve this goal through the skills i acquire in the process. As mentioned in some of my previous posts before, it is not necessarily a goal that leads me to a better end result, it’s a goal that will enable me to gain better skills to help me function better. Thus, the learning in this goal is in the means, not the end. The skills that I will gain such as time management, prioritizing, setting routines, and evaluating my progress consistently will help me metacognitively develop, and thus be on the route to self-regulate.
Specific: The goal is divided into 3 smaller proximal goals that will enable me to evaluate my progress and have a specific performance standard that I can monitor. For example, the ability to manage time effectively will show in my daily agenda and if I have prioritized what is important and feel accomplished at the end of the day. The ability to build a routine can be easily compared to the days that I don’t follow routine, and I can compare how my performance is with and without a routine. Finally, by reflecting upon my conversations and interactions with my support group, I can evaluate how I have progresse, what has helped me, what has hindered me, and what I can continue doing to help my business , my profession, and my personal life.
Proximal: The goal can be broken down to smaller steps that I can achieve over time, such as setting routines, having a daily agenda, etc. By reaching these goals, and taking small steps at a time, I leave room for self-reflection and for feedback.
Sources:
Locke, E. A., & Latham, G. P. (2006). New directions in goal-setting theory. Current Directions in Psychological Science, 15(5), 265-268.
Pintrich, P. R. (1995). Understanding self‐regulated learning. New Directions for Teaching and Learning, (63), 3-12.
Schunk, D. H. (1990). Goal setting and self-efficacy during self-regulated learning. Educational Psychologist, 25(1), 71-86.
Schunk, D. H., & Zimmerman, B. J. (Eds.). (2008). Motivation and self-regulated learning: Theory, research, and applications. New York, NY: Lawrence Erlbaum Associates.
Zimmerman, B. J. (2002). Becoming a self-regulated learner: An overview. Theory into practice, 41(2), 64-70.
FORETHOUGHT
PERFORMANCE
SELF-REFLECTION
ADDITONAL SOURCES:
