Zainudin Abu Bakar, Lee Mei Yun, Ng Siew Keow, Tan Hui Li. (2014). Goal-Setting
Learning Principles. Journal of Education and Learning. Vol.8 (1) pp. 41-50.

Goal-Setting Learning Principles: A Lesson from
Practitioner
Zainudin Abu Bakar *
Faculty of Education, Universiti Teknologi Malaysia, Malaysia

Lee Mei Yun
Faculty of Education, Universiti Teknologi Malaysia, Malaysia

Ng Siew Keow
Faculty of Education, Universiti Teknologi Malaysia, Malaysia

Tan Hui Li
Faculty of Education, Universiti Teknologi Malaysia, Malaysia

Abstract
The concern of the classroom teaching and learning activities has long been attended by many researchers. There
are so much studies on how specific theories and principles able to enhance the effectiveness of the activities. One
of the prominent theory was the goal-setting theory which was widely been used in educational setting. It is an
approach than can enhance the teaching and learning activities in the classroom. Every educator should embark on
this theory by employing its principle in the classroom teaching activities. Regardless of how, when and where it
should be understood as a tool for educators to ensure their teaching and learning activities is effectively executed.
This is a report paper about a simple study of the implementation of the goal-setting principle in the classroom. A
single observation has been carried out for the data collection activity in accordance to the exploration of how the
goal-setting learning principle presence in the teacher’s classroom teaching and learning activities. One Year 5
classroom from one primary school in Johor Bahru, Malaysia was selected for the observation. A clinical data of
the teaching and learning session was then analysed to address several issues highlighted. It is found that the goalsetting principles if understood clearly by the teachers can enhance the teaching and learning activities. The session
looked more fascinating and active in terms of learning and teaching activities. Students were more motivated than
ever before because the learning was becoming more visible and clear. Failed to see the needs of the session will
revoke the students learning interest. It is suggested that goal-setting learning principles could become a powerful
aid for the teachers in the classroom.
Keywords: Goal-setting learning principle, classroom activities, teaching and learning

*

Zainudin Abu Bakar, Faculty of Education, Universiti Teknologi Malaysia, Malaysia.
E-mail: p-zain@utm.my

Introduction
Most researchers indicated that goal setting is essential for achievement in learning process
(Anderman, 2011). Additionally, it also encourages students’ self-improvement in different aspect of
learning as it plays an essential component of decision making which related to the mental processes
that result in selection of appropriate actions to make accomplishment. Therefore, in order to promote
learning in classroom especially students’ goals of achievement, it is essential for the educators to
understand the concepts of goal setting theory before planning any teaching strategy.
Long-term goal and Short-term goal
Basically, goals have categorised into short-term goal and long-term goal. Short-term goals are
goals to be accomplished within a short period of time. In contrast, long-term goals are the goals that
aimed to be achieved over a long period of time such as years of time. Long-term goals are not specific
as what individuals set for their short-term goals. But, both long-term and short-goals are always related
to each other. In education setting, short term goals are set with the purpose to achieve long term goals.
For instance, students are expected to achieve short–term goals such as learning different the oral
speaking and written skills on the chapters stated in syllabus in order to master English language.
Santrock (2011) has indicated that it is essential to set and achieve short-term goals to move
towards to long-term accomplishment. Meaning, long-term goals are always depend on individuals’
efforts to define and accomplish the goals through setting particular goals efficiently.
The types of motives
There are two different conceptions in explaining achievement motives, which include
motives-as-drives and motives-as-goals. According to the concept of motive-as-drives, motivation is
viewed as a drive, which is an internal state that needed to push someone towards actions to avoid the
situation that their need is unfulfilled (Covington, 2000). Where else for motives-as-goals, motivation
has been viewed as a stimulator in achieving particular goals and as a crucial element in setting and
attaining particular goals in order to facilitate goal-oriented behaviors.
Goal-setting theory
Nowadays, the concept of Goal-Setting theory has been emphasised in educational fields to
make enhancement on students’ performance in academic. Locke and Latham (2006) explained that
goal is an aim of action that needs to be consciously gained and achieved. It involves the different levels
of goal difficulty, levels of performance, and amount of efforts have been putting in to obtain the
desirable outcomes. Besides, to order to obtain effective performance, some conditions should be met
which including goal specificity, goal difficulty, goal acceptance and commitment, and feedback.
There are two main cognitive components of behavior in goal setting theory: values and
intentions (goals). Individuals would create a desire to do certain actions that consistent with their value
(Locke & Latham, 2006). Meanwhile, goal plays a key role in energizes, direct, and eventually affect
particular behaviours. Meaning, individuals would become more energetic, able to develop suitable
strategies, and increase persistent efforts in order to achieve desirable outcomes or behaviors if their
goals are specific and challenging enough. Figure 1 provides a simple look about goal-setting theory.
Satisfaction and Further Motivation
Values

Emotions
and
Desires

Intentions
(Goals)

Directed
Attention
Mobilize
Effort
Persistent
Strategize

Behavior or
Performance

Outcome

Frustration and Lower Motivation
Figure 1. General Model of Goal-Setting Theory

Achievement goal theory
Achievement Goal Theory is emphasized on the impacts of the goals on students’ performance
in classroom settings (Pintrich, Conley & Kempler, 2003; Was, 2006). In details, the reasons for

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Goal-Setting Learning Principles

students engage in certain learning tasks or actions and why they desire to achieve are the main
components in studying achievement goal theory. The theory has explained that students’ academic
performance is directly linked to the varied and complex cognitive strategies that applied by the
students in learning certain knowledge and skills (Covington, 2000).Therefore, it helps the teacher to
understand and influence the reason why students desire to learn and how to motivate students in
learning.
Achievement goal theorists also focused on the significance to decide the types of goals that
are most appropriate for the students, how the selected goals may affect to cognitive strategies and
affective responses that lead to accomplishment (Was, 2006). Based on this goal theory, there are three
main theoretical approaches have been greatly emphasized in academic settings, which are mastery
orientation and performance orientation and work-avoidant goals (Arias, 2004; Seijts et al., 2004; Was,
2006).
Types of goal orientations
Mastery goals are referred to the goals that focus on the learning and mastering the skills in
order to complete the tasks at hand (Seijts et al., 2004). Such goals have been assumed to be the
effective approach which encourage the use of effective meta-cognition and cognitive strategies for the
learning enhancement, increment of self-efficacy, effort, persistence or determination as well as the goal
orientation (Was, 2006).
The effective uses of cognitive strategies in achieving mastery goal involve with rehearsal,
elaboration, and organization or information (Was, 2006). Additionally, meta-cognition strategies are
also applied to plan, monitor, and regulate their cognition.
Mastery goals have been separated into two categories, which are approach orientation and
avoidance orientation (Elliot, 1999). Mastery approach orientation is known as the attempt to complete
the task with the sake of improvement in knowledge. Whereas, mastery avoidance orientation is known
as the avoidance of task due to the sense of incapability in completing the task successfully and the
engagement into tasks that emphasizing the avoidance of mistakes, or diminution of adapted skills.
Additionally, Elliot (1999) also further distinguished the mastery orientation into taskreferential orientation and past- referential orientation. Student with task-referential orientation tend to
measure their own competence according to their completion or understanding on task at hand.
Whereas, past-referential orientated students would apply their reviews on past performance as the
measure of achievement and the scale of new goal setting.
Individuals who have adopted performance goal orientation tend to focus on the outcome,
others’ comments, feedbacks and views on their performance whereby to prefer tasks which allow them
to demonstrate their capability at the expense of their learning new skills (Seijts et al., 2004).They
would explain their success or failure is due to external factors such as luck, task difficulty or the
uncontrollable or controllable ability (Was, 2006).
There are two categories of performance goal orientation. Performance-approach oriented
individuals would view themselves more capable compared to others and tend to measure themselves
against others in order to prove that they are more capable than others and to gain approval and
recognition hence to enhance their self-esteem (Was, 2006).
However, performance-avoidance oriented persons would view themselves to lack of ability
and avoid showing their low-achievement to the public and they would engage in strategies such as
weak efforts, avoid risks, setting unrealistic goals, and procrastination of works. However, their
negative behaviours are the factors that lead them to failure and they eventually perceive their failure as
the result of low ability and they can no longer avoid failure (Was, 2006).
Work-avoidant orientation has explained the concept where failure is avoided without much
effort and achievement is viewed as the result of little effort (Arias, 2004). Firstly, people will choose
the incentive which requiring least effort from them compared to the one which need to work harder but
giving the same amount of incentive too. Secondly, people will prone to the behaviours will least effort
to obtain a reinforcement compared to other behaviours which more effort is required for obtains of the
same level of reinforcement as well (Was, 2006).
According to Was (2006), work-avoidant oriented students tend to less value on hard work and
do not have the need to demonstrate their competency. They are category of people who most likely to
show procrastination of works and lack of achievement goals. They would apply defensive pessimism
strategies where they would attempt to set extreme low expectation with the purpose of minimizing
their effort, to make sure that they are success in the easy task, and minimize anxiety brought by the
sense of task is not being successful with consequences of burnout (Arias, 2004).

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43

Five principles of goal-setting
Locke and Latham (1990) have extended the goal theory by listing the five main characteristics
or principles of goal-setting (as cited in Mind Tools, n.d.). For effective motivations, the presented goals
must possess clarity, challenging, the commitment from the achiever, provide constructive feedbacks,
and appropriate task complexity.
I. Clarity- the presented goals should be productive, unambiguous and measurable. Therefore, goals
should be well defined with clear deadline and less misleading information on the expectation of
the achievement. (Johnson, 2012; Mind Tools, n.d.).
II. Challenge- the goals must possess sufficient level of challenge to motivate the individuals to put in
more effort in achieving the goals (Mind Tools, n.d). The extreme low or high of task difficulty will
cause boredom or avoidance of failure while completing the tasks which affect the result of the
goals.
III. Commitment- people will show their commitment if they feel they are part of the achievement. The
most used strategy is to get the individuals to be involved in the planning, setting up the goals and
decision making process (Johnson, 2012). Additionally, there is a linkage between commitment and
task difficulty where individuals who perceive the goal is difficult and challenging would to be
driven and inspired to achieve the goals (Johnson, 2012; Mind Tools, n.d).
IV. Feedback- the contain of the feedback should be focus on the progression checking, figuring out the
current obstacles, proposal of solution and the need of additional resources (Johnson, 2012).
Feedback could serve as a clear benchmark to guide the executors for self-evaluation (Mind Tools,
n.d). The inclusion of praise and appreciation in the feedback process will be served as rewards to
motivate the executors to continue work hard in the task (Johnson, 2012).
V. Task complexity- for the goals with higher level of complexity, have to ensure the individuals do
not feel too overwhelmed (Johnson, 2012). Therefore, sufficient time, training and guidance must
be given to achieve the target (Mind Tools, n.d.).
Classroom goal structure: TARGET system
TARGET system is one of the effective strategies which emphasize on promoting mastery and
performance goals in classroom based on the concept of five principles of goal-setting. In this system,
educators use a student-report measure to assess the salience of mastery and performance goals in the
classroom. Six letters in “TARGET” word refers to six dimensions respectively include task design (T),
distribution of authority (A), recognition of students (R), grouping arrangements (G), evaluation
practices (E), and time allocation (T).
I. Task design (T) - pupils are encouraged to participate in variety, challenge, organization, and
interest level of learning activities. Therefore, the level of assignments should be within the zone of
proximal development of the pupils where the pupils are able to do complete tasks with guidance.
Through this, the pupils’ satisfactions exist and hence, they are motivated intrinsically in their
learning.
II. Distributions of authority (A) - pupils are suggested to take responsibility for their own learning, to
make decision, and take leadership role in activities. These help them to develop their sense of
personal control and strengthen their sense of responsibility. This is a key to promote masteryoriented goals. It was imperative to focus students on their current status and experiences.
III. Recognition of pupils (R) - feedback was given on pupils’ performance in activities or tasks were
progressing. When pupils received the feedback, they will feel that their effort and performance are
appreciated. Because of the paradoxical effects that recognition can have on some students’
motivation, interest, and participation, it should be delivered in privacy with specificity and
sincerity.
IV. Grouping arrangements (G) - the types of grouping arrangements in classroom would create
different effects in learning. Students could work individually, in pair, or in small groups.
Educators should use observation on students’ ability and capability in different areas and then
form groups with mixing different level of students in various areas. It can promote scaffolding in
the group. Additionally, the members in group could observe each other’s strengths and
weaknesses and then also learn from the high ability students in completing activities or tasks.
V. Evaluation practices (E) - students are able to understand more about themselves, especially on
their level of knowledge in certain subjects through proper evaluations designed within the scope of
the syllabus. When they know their real level of knowledge, they are easier to set the objective
goal. Because of the desire to foster mastery goals, social comparison was avoided among students,
and educators should always remind the class that the evaluation focuses on individual growth and
development.

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VI. Time allocation (T) - it is essential for students to have sense of ownership in determining the pace
and scheduling of learning activities and assignments. Therefore, the pace of instruction and the
appropriateness of the workload were discussed with students, and accommodations were made
when deemed necessary.

Study Procedure
The study utilises simple action research procedure which intention is to improve and to
enhance the current practices. However, only a single classroom observation has been executed to
collect the data. One Year 5 primary school in Johor Bahru, Malaysia was selected for the observation.
In conducting both activities, consent from the school, especially the teacher and the students has been
acquired prior to the observation. This is done to secure the full cooperation from the school, the teacher
and the students. The observation was conducted purposely to explore how the goal-setting learning
principles is been implemented in the classroom learning and teaching activities. Three types of
classroom activities for enhancing students’ learning performance in English language were carried out
in that class. It includes the activities of searching past tense verbs, reading sentences, rearranging
words based on structure of sentence and guessing. This classroom teaching aimed to teach students in
differentiation of present and past tenses. At the end of the lesson, the students could able to recognize
past tense verbs and master the usage of grammar of past tense in English. The data was then been
analysed to explore in what circumstances the goal-setting learning principles are relevant to the
classroom teaching and learning activities.

Results and Discussion
Goal setting process
Generally, goal setting is a major part of the successful implementation for teaching
instructions, as well as students’ learning performance in academic. It can be said as the process of
establishing direction and purpose. Based on the English teacher, the main purpose of setting goals for
her students is to assist them to acquire appropriate learning skills, and also enhance their learning
performance in English subject.
Goal setting involves multi-step process, for instance, teachers should define the students’
needs in learning, create specific learning goals for students, prepare and implement effective pedagogy
and classroom activities, monitor students’ progress, and lastly determine whether the students achieve
the goals. From the observation, the English teacher determined that her students need more practices in
learning English grammar. Then, the teacher created several specific goals for her students by providing
some classroom activities in order to assist her students for better learning in past-tense verbs.
Throughout the activities, the teacher always focused on her students’ response and performance in
every task in order to ensure whether her students achieved the goals or not.
As we know, goals play important role in motivate students to become more energetic, able to
develop suitable learning style, and then put their persistent efforts in order to achieve specific learning
outcome and performance. Without setting appropriate goals, the drive of motivation of the learners
toward better learning performance will decrease. Setting specific goals act as a motivator in enhancing
students’ learning performance and also important for the teachers to plan for classroom activities.
Based on the observation, the English teacher executed a well-planned daily lesson by
conducting suitable classroom activities which emphasized on achieving specific student learning
outcomes in English language. The first task is formulating specific goals to help her students in
learning past-tense verbs. Before conducting the planned activities, the teacher identified and set some
appropriate and relevant goals for her students, so that she can assist her students to improve and master
the use of past-tense verbs in English language. To be more specific, the English teacher divided the
goals into two categories: short-term goals and long-term goals. The setting goals have been presented
as below:
Short-term goals:
i. Students are able to recognize past tense verbs.
ii. Students are able to pronounce the words and read the sentences correctly.
iii. Students are able to understand the structure of making sentence.
iv. Students are able to make simple sentence by using past tense verbs.
Long-term goals:
i. Students are able to understand and master the use of past tense verbs in English at the end of the
school semester.

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45

ii. Students are able to enhance and master their knowledge of English at the end of the school
semester.
In general, both short-term and long-term goals are significant in the process of goal setting.
Achieving short-term goals is the main step towards long-term goals accomplishment (Santrock, 2011).
Based on the observation, the English teacher broke the short-term goals down into a step-by-step plan
by conducting several classroom activities in order to improve students’ understanding on the use of
past tense verbs. Each goal that stated above is accompanied by providing some classroom activities for
the students to meet the goals. In specifically, some interesting and appropriate classroom activities
have been provided for the grammar lesson, such as activity of differentiate between present-tense and
past-tense verbs, activity of reading sentence, activity of searching past-tense verbs, activity of making
sentences and so forth. According to the English teacher, the main objective of preparing these learning
activities is to assist and guide her students to improve their various knowledge of learning past tense
verbs (based on the short-term goals above), eventually, her students would have better understanding
on the usage of past tense verbs in order to improve their knowledge of English language (based on the
long-terms goals above).
Types of goal orientation
In addition, according to achievement goal theory, the types of goal orientations adopted by
students would influence the performance and outcome in their learning process (Pintrich, Conley &
Kempler, 2003; Was, 2006). Therefore, the current section of current classroom observation would
explain the students’ learning performance in the English lesson based on the perspectives of different
goal orientations.
According to Seijts and colleagues (2006), students who engage with mastery goal orientation
would show persistence on higher level difficult tasks in pursuing the goals. For example, to increase
the difficulty of the learning task, the teacher has requested for a student to be a volunteer to read the
sentences stated on the whiteboard independently. Most of the students were reluctant to raise their
hand; however, a student has raised his hand and would like to try to complete the task. The student’s
action could be due to his learning goal to approach himself to master the independent reading skills.
Most of the students showed reluctance to raise up their hand to be volunteer in engaging the
independent reading task. Such situation could be explained based on the concept of master goal with
avoidance orientation. According Elliot (1999), students with such orientation may have the sense of
incapability to complete the task and tend to engage with task where they can avoid mistakes.
Therefore, they would prefer to read in groups rather than independently.
During the activity of doing revision of past tense verbs, for task-referential oriented students,
they tended to measure their competence according to the completion of the tasks assigned by the
English teacher. Therefore, they would take initiative to engage to the current tasks in the lesson.
Whereas for past-referential orientation students, they might reviews their past performance in previous
lessons on whether they have mastered the understanding on simple past tense before deciding to
engage in new tasks in that current English lesson.
In contrast, students with performance goal orientation tend to focus on the outcome of the
tasks, and emphasized intensively on the feedbacks from others (Was, 2006). During the classroom
activities, there were some students who tended to make comparison on their performance with others.
For example, a female student had volunteered herself to engage with the task by pasting the answer
card onto the sentence structure boxes. She then stood still without returning to her seat and observed
others’ answers anxiously after she had completed the task. It seemed that she attempted to measure
herself against others who also engaged in the same task. Be more specific, the female student had
adopted the performance-approach orientation in setting her learning goal in that English lesson.
Whereas, there was another female student who reluctant to volunteer herself in engaging the
tasks and even rejected the teacher when the tasks were assigned to her throughout the lesson. Although
she had accepted the task by pasting the answer card onto the correct section of sentence structure, she
seemed to be lost and afraid with her answers until the teacher had provided her the correct answer. This
situation could be explained by the concept of performance-avoidance orientation, which indicated such
student viewed themselves as lack of competency and avoid showing their low-achievement in the
public by weak efforts, avoid risks and procrastination of works (Was, 2006).
In addition, the concept of work-avoidant goal orientation could use to explain the possibility
where the students who do not take initiative to volunteer themselves to complete the tasks that needed
to be done independently, such as reading sentences and went to the whiteboard to paste the word cards
at the appropriate boxes. They would rather prefer to engage in the tasks in group. According to Was
(2006), those students might think that the reinforcements given on every types of tasks were equally

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Goal-Setting Learning Principles

same, therefore they were prone to behaviors with least efforts compared to those tasks required more
efforts.
Classroom goal structure
What the teachers plan and implement for their teaching strategies and learning activities for
their students may directly influence the students’ learning patterns and their motivation level in
learning. Through this classroom observation, we can look at how the teacher created different goal
structure in her classroom, which is based on TARGET system. The examples of instructional practices
that would potentially emphasize on a mastery/ learning goal structure have been explained more detail
in the following part.
The first and most important characteristic in setting goal is clarity. At the beginning of this
teaching classroom, the English teacher has explained clearly to her students on the topic she aimed for
teaching. Therefore, students would have a clear picture about what they were going to learn during that
period, and also, what they have to pay attention on. It is one of the ways that enable her students feel
motivated in completing following activities or tasks. During the teaching lesson, we observed that most
of the students could answer teacher’s question correctly. Therefore, it might show that instruction is
necessary to be delivered clearly if teacher wants to help students to achieve goals successfully. Based
on Nicol and Macfarlane-Dick (2006), students can only achieve learning goals if they understand those
goals, assume some ownership of them, and can assess progress. After received the clear information
from teacher, the students have a clear idea about what they are going to learn and their interest was
stimulated, too. Hence, their selective attention was able to be activated during the whole teaching
activity was going on. If it happened, they tend to seek the understanding of the pattern of past tense
words or sentences.
In the observed teaching classroom, the teacher prepared and implemented three different types
of activities to engage her students in enhancing their knowledge of past tense. So, various and
interesting tasks or activities have been designed in motivate her students. It is because students engage
in different types of classroom activities may stimulate their interests in learning, and also kept
continuing until they achieve the goals successfully. Furthermore, it encourages the students to apply
the knowledge in the various activities and also avoids them from learning the knowledge passively.
From observation, most of the students were able to identify past tense words in sentences and then
proceed to complete the following activities successfully. Seemingly, the activities which were designed
based on the goals that are set by the teacher suited to her students’ learning ability.
Moreover, in this observed teaching classroom, the difficulty level of activity increased
gradually from one to another. When students are able to perform well in the first particular activity,
their self-esteem is motivated. Thus, they tended to be willing to put more effort or attention in
engaging themselves in the following activities in order to maintain their well performance in these
activities. By using these activities, teacher provided positive learning environment and is easier to
guide her pupils in gaining the designated knowledge and achieving the goals. It lead students learn the
knowledge in correct path when they participated the activities with their teacher’s guidance.
As mentioned in TARGET system, students are motivated when they participate in various,
challenging learning activities which are suitable to their interest level. By implementing the three types
of teaching activities, students might be motivated to learn how to differentiate past tense and present
tense. In the observation classroom, not all the students looked interested in participating in the
activities. For example, when teacher asked some questions, some of the students are looked down and
seem like being afraid to be chosen to answer questions. While, some of the pupils looked felt bored.
These might be caused by several reasons. Maybe the difficulty level of the activities is low for the
students who showed the feeling of bored. That means they already have such knowledge in their mind
and they were able to find the answer quickly. Locke and Latham (1990) assert that challenging goals
cause people to work longer on a task and they who work on easier goals are expected to complete their
goals sooner, simply because they have nothing more to do. In another reason of having the feeling of
bored, they just do not be interested of learning English.
Second, the students who are afraid to be chosen might have low self-esteem in completing the
activities. Such students feel rejected which dangerously affects the performance of the students in the
process of education (Supple, 2000). The students who have low self-esteem think themselves as failure
and do not want to show their incapability in front of their classmate. They did not focus attentively to
the activities. In the beginning stage, the students were passive in responding to the questions but after
the teacher’s encouragement and motivation, the students started to show their participations in the
lesson. However, not many students are passive in the teaching lesson. Majority of students looked
excited and put up their hand voluntarily to answer teacher’s questions or complete the given task. It
helps students achieve the goal which is set by the teacher. The combination of passive learners and
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47

active learners is normal phenomenon that could be seen in every classroom because there are nearly
forty students in a classroom and their learning ability is different with each other.
Besides this, recognition of students is also important in implementing goal-setting theory in
the classroom. Latham (2004) has mentioned that students need feedback on their progress toward the
goal because feedback enables them to adjust the level or direction of their effort and the strategy
necessary for goal attainment. In the observation classroom, teacher praised her students or gave
encouragement orally, such as “good”, “excellent”, when they gave correct answers and gave some
suggestions to guide her students when they were failed to answer the questions. This is very important
because it enhances students’ self-esteem and led them to achieve the goal successfully. This is
supported by Labuhn and his partners’ findings (2010) which indicated that students who received
feedback from their teachers were more likely to accurately use strategies to achieve their goal which is
improving their mathematics scores.
For group arrangement, the students were not grouped instead they were given the
opportunities to show their understandings by putting up their hands voluntarily. They were given
opportunities to give their response to the questions and take part in every task in the activities. It is
suitable in testing their understanding on the basic knowledge of grammar of past tense. Nonetheless,
two-way feedback and discussion toward the tasks have been provided in order to create more
cooperative learning environment. Through these methods, teachers would be more understand about
her students’ level of learning in English subject. As a result, the evaluation about students’ progress
toward past tense learning can be done through applying these teaching strategies.

Concluding Remarks
It is good and encouraged for the teachers to set appropriate classroom goals in teaching
English grammar before classroom activities are conducted. Setting goals is greatly recommended in
classroom settings, because it can intrinsically motivate the students in learning English. It also creates a
continuous improvement classroom setting that benefit to both teachers and students. From the observed
teaching classroom, the English teacher set a list of concrete and achievable goals for her students and
then guides her students to engage in the activities in purpose of accomplishing the short-term and longterm goals. In the session of teaching grammar of past tense, the teacher selected several specific and
challenging classroom goals for her students in order to enhance their capacity in mastering the use of
past tense verbs. The teacher also considered with the learning ability of each student when setting the
classroom goals.
Besides, a goal without a measure is unsuccessful. So, the English teacher prepared her
teaching strategic plan and carried out several learning tasks and activities in order to assist her students
accomplish the classroom goals. The teacher has been found in focusing on helping and guiding her
students to accomplish every task in the activities that match to the goals. So every student would be
benefit with scaffolding and then mastering the tasks, especially for the less competent students. From
observation, most students in the classroom were in the zone of proximal development for successfully
complete the task that given by teacher. For instance, most students able to answer correctly for
searching the past tense verbs from the sentences, but only few students needed more scaffolding to
complete in this task.
Furthermore, the English teacher also makes sure that all her students were able to proceed to
another tasks or activities after the previous task is completed. As noted above, the short-term goals
must be achieve by the students with guidance step by step towards long-term goals accomplishment.
When the assistance was given, motivation would be stimulated which would lead the students to
achieve the classroom goals as well as their personal goals.
According to goal theory, the goal serves as a stimulator to motivate and direct the learners
towards desired learning behavior and then put their efforts to sustain that behavior. From the observed
classroom activities, the endeavor of the teacher has been seen in assisting and guiding her students to
better understanding in the grammar of past tense verbs, and also, among the students who also put their
great efforts in participating the classroom activities to enhance their own capacity in using past tense
verbs in English subject. In simple, if we do not have any specific goals, our efforts towards better
learning will not be focused.
Regardless of what level goal setting is taking place, goals should be set based on the
TARGET principle. In this case, the English teacher developed a list of goals that are specific, concrete,
understandable, challenging and so forth. Depending on the situation, the classroom goals should be
suited to the learning level of every student, and then the teacher can select more appropriate teaching
strategies and classroom activities to motivate the students in learning English.

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Although setting classroom goals are highly motivate students intrinsically in learning and
making improvement towards academic achievement, extrinsic motivation also should be greatly
emphasized. Beside creating classroom goals for the students (as intrinsic motivation), the English
teacher also provided some teaching strategies that consist of extrinsic motivation, such as encouraged
her students engage in the learning activities, gave positive feedback and praise students who were able
to complete the tasks, and also provide for scaffolding of corrective feedback. Besides, the use of
computer projector in teaching English also can create the sense of curiosity of the students, so they
would pay full attention for taking part in the lesson. From what we observed, most students were
enjoying participate in the classroom activities and also volunteered themselves to answer the questions
with guidance. For the students who were able to complete the task, the teacher praise them (such as
you are clever, that’s good) and the students seem become more energetic in participate actively in the
following activities.
Last but not least, the English teacher was able to set appropriate classroom goals for her
students and provided various types of activities for her students to learn English grammar. But, the
teacher has been suggested to guide her students to set their own learning goals in more concrete form,
especially for the less competent students. It is because they may lack of skills in setting their own goals
without guidance if compared to more competent students. For example, the English teacher can
provide more guidance by giving some cue (such as key words) or develop a simple action plan to assist
the less competent students to set short, clear and understandable learning goals. Combining both
classroom goals and students’ personal goals are highly motivated the students in better learning and
academic achievement, as well as create a more effective classroom environment.

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Goal-Setting Learning Principles