Goal

The purpose toward which an endeavor is directed. Educational research supports the reasonable idea that students will move toward goals when they know what the goals are. The goals should be fairly specific. Behavioral objectives are effective in this respect. They should also be challenging without being too difficult, and communicated as expectations for the results of learning. When planning curriculum, units, and daily lessons, an educator should do so with a focus not on what he/she is going to cover, but on students meeting standards ? on what students should be able to do when instruction is complete.Some strategies for educators: Involve students in some of the goal setting for the class and for themselves individually. Be sure you are clear about your objectives for students. State goals in behavioral terms. For example, "The student will be able to mix the primary colors to get the secondary colors," rather than "The student will understand more about mixing colors." At the very start of every lesson, communicate goals and objectives to students, orally or in writing, or both. For example, "By the end of class today you're each going to use the color wheel to find the primary colors, figure out which ones make which secondary colors, and then make those colors." You'd do well to habitually write a short version on the board! Evaluate student progress or mastery in relation to the specified objectives. Also see art criticism, Bloom's Taxonomy, critique, effort, enthusiasm, evaluation, interesting, motivation, positive reinforcement, praise, readiness, and success.