Learning Goals

Learning goals clarify the purpose of tasks. Students need to be able to name and identify their learning so that they can recall the learning and make use of the learning in accomplishing other tasks (learn more about memory). Professional organizations highlight the importance of teachers being able to articulate learning goals that P-12 students can say and remember to guide their own learning.

Develop your skills in articulating Learning Goals

The Center for Exceptional Children (CEC) offers 11 possible statements that teachers can reflect on to reflect on strengths in their teaching practices and ways to develop their skills at articulating and using learning goals:

1. I can translate students’ long- and short-term goals into individual learning activities.
2. I create lessons where student outcomes are clear, measurable, ambitious, attainable, and actionable.
3. I am clear about where and how targeted skills and knowledge will be measured within a given lesson or setting.
4. I develop goals that clearly define what students will do to demonstrate their learning.
5. I have clear criteria to determine the extent to which students are achieving the goal.
6. The goals and objectives I create for students are observable.
7. The goals and objectives I develop are clear and measurable.
8. I state students’ goals and objectives in a positive manner.
9. The goals I set for students are linked as much as possible to the general education curriculum.
10. I ensure that there is a clear need of the goals and objectives set for each student.
11. I ensure that the goals and objectives set are ambitious but mediated by students’ individual needs.

Tools that help articulate Learning Goals

Learning progressions help students visualize how the current learning goal is drawing on previous skills and knowledge and how current learning will provide a foundation for specific future learning. For example, see Math Learning Progressions.