Introduction
Common sense tells us that setting clear goals for students is the essential first step in teaching. Clear goals allow teachers to determine the best methods and materials for reaching our objectives and also enable us to establish appropriate criteria for assessing students' success.
Recent research on how goals are represented in the brain adds a strong neurobiological rationale for shaping and communicating clear goals to students. An everyday example highlights some key findings from this research: Suppose your goal is to drink a cup of coffee without spilling any on your clean shirt. How is this goal represented in the brain?
Earlier theory suggested that our brains specify goals as a precise sequence of muscle actions (first, extend the arm toward the cup; next, open the fingers to grasp the handle; then close the fingers; and so forth). As it turns out, this is not how it works. See for yourself: Mentally set the goal of picking up a coffee cup and bringing it to your lips. Now do it. You found it routine, right? Put the cup back down, move twelve inches away from it, and attempt the same goal again. Again, it's routine, despite the fact that your muscles had to act in a slightly different sequence. Even if you placed a heavy weight on your arm, you would still have little difficulty smoothly adjusting your movements to retrieve the cup. It's difficult to reconcile this experiment with the idea that the brain represents actions with exactly specified muscle movements. If this were true, changing the necessary sequence of muscle actions would require a new mental representation, introducing a new challenge.
Neuroscientists now know that our strategic networks create internal plans based entirely upon the goal of an action (see Frith & Dolan, 1996; Funahashi, 2001; Levine et al., 1998). Following a plan that is based on an outcome-rather than one that is more concerned with the precise steps necessary to reach that outcome-is the surest way to preserve the outcome when external conditions change. For example, to attain the stated goal, "Drink some coffee," there are many options open to us, including reaching for a cup in any number of ways, leaning forward to use a straw, or sipping the coffee out of a spoon. In contrast, there are limited alternative pathways through which we might attain the goal, "Reach forward six inches, grasp the handle of the cup, tighten your grip, lift to your mouth, and drink some coffee." A goal this specific leaves little leeway to coffee drinkers. This raises an important issue: Goals that are too highly specified limit the possible strategies for reaching them, thus suppressing creative solutions and limiting the number of people who can even attempt to attain the goals.
Because strategic networks must understand the intended outcome of the goal in order to construct a plan of action, a fuzzy goal, or a goal confounded with the means to achieve it, leads to actions that lack focus. Without clear objective, it's difficult to gauge progress. In contrast, clearly communicated goals can support all three brain networks by helping students know what they are supposed to do, how to do it, and why it is important. Students who understand the goals of their schoolwork are more likely to stay focused, monitor themselves successfully, and derive satisfaction from their progress.
Setting clear goals and communicating them so that students understand them is neither as easy nor as widely practiced as we might think. It requires that teachers overcome several challenges, the most important of which is the apparent contradiction between standards and learner diversity.
