What do you want your targets to do?
Answering this question means gaining a better understanding of why you are setting targets and how you expect learners to use them, as well as what changes you hope to effect through the provision of your targets.
It may not take you long to answer, but it is worth thinking about.
Without a clear understanding of why you are setting targets and a vision for what you want them to achieve, there is a risk that you will fall into a routine in which targets become a token part of the process, and don’t have the impact you want.
This is not to say that targets won’t have a positive effect in these circumstances.
They may well do.
But I would argue that your actions inside the classroom and while you are planning and marking, are likely to be better directed and more in line with your aims if you have a sound rationale supporting them.
For example, an art teacher might decide that they want their targets to consistently challenge learners to improve the quality of their work.
This sounds like an obvious point, but there are other options available: targets that encourage a different way of looking, targets that encourage revision and reflection, targets based on metacognition.
If you have a precise meaning underpinning your target-setting, it means that when you mark and give feedback, you do so through a lens that you have chosen.
In our example, when marking work, the art teacher will ask themselves whether learners have been sufficiently challenged.
They will then use the answers they get to this question to inform their target-setting.
Over time, this will lead to targets being set that accord with the teacher’s intentions, creating consistency.
If you lack clarity of understanding regarding what you are trying to achieve through your target-setting, you will be less likely to achieve what you want.
So, spend a few minutes asking yourself why you are setting targets and what you hope to achieve by doing this.
Then use your answers to inform your marking and feedback.
Of course, there are many reasons why you might set targets, all of them equally valid.
And there is nothing stopping you switching between them or having two or three that you see as equally important.
With that in mind, here are seven key areas you might choose to focus on:
Active Practice
This is practice in which the learner is actively engaged.
It differs from passive practice where the learner is repeating a process without fully attending to what they are doing.
Targets focused on active practice ask learners to repeat something while thinking carefully about it.
The learner must fully engage with the act of practice.
This leads to more sustained improvement than would otherwise be the case.
For example, a PE teacher might set the following target: ‘I want you to focus on watching the ball onto the bat. Follow it with your eyes from the bowler’s hand until it hits the bat. Think about what you’re doing as you practice.’
Here the teacher gives advice about how the learner can improve their technique.
They include an element of active practice by asking the learner to attend to what they are doing while they are trying to do it.
The focus is on both implementation of a change in process and active engagement with the attempt to make that change.
This principle can be applied in all areas of the curriculum.
It can overlap with some of the other options detailed below or remain your sole focus.
It can be particularly useful if you feel learners’ efforts aren’t leading to the results you expect.
Or if learners are claiming they see no point in repetition.
In these cases, focussing on active practice means channelling learner effort so that more tangible results are produced; and so the impact of practice is easier for learners to see.
Editing, Rewriting, Redoing
Many learners like to finish a piece of work and then move on.
Many do not like being asked to edit, rewrite or redo some or all of what they have done.
They often see this as a futile endeavour or feel that the teacher is making unfair demands on them.
In the minds of these learners, the work is done when it is done.
We know that sometimes this is the case, but that often it isn’t.
There is usually room for improvement and learners will benefit from going back and reviewing what they’ve produced.
We recognise the benefits of seeing work as a work-in-progress and seeing an end product as something a little further off; not something necessarily achieved on immediate completion of a task.
Focussing your targets on editing, rewriting and redoing encourages learners to change how they view their work and to improve the quality of what they produce.
If taking this route, which has much to recommend it, it is worth spending a bit of time explaining to learners why these processes are worth doing and how a piece of work is likely to improve by being edited, rewritten or redone.
The purpose is to help them better understand what revision and amendment can lead to.
Through doing this groundwork you make it more likely that learners will respond positively to the nature of your targets; hopefully embracing them but, if not, at least appreciating their utility.
Changing Processes
Processes are what produce work and underpin learning.
They are open to change and, as we saw above in the example of the PE teacher, are a prime area on which to focus your targets.
When it comes to changing processes, targets are often about the teacher giving access to their expert knowledge of how a process can work more effectively.
The aim is to transfer this expertise from the teacher’s mind to the learner’s mind, so that the learner can alter the processes they are using when producing work.
For example, an English teacher might identify a learner who is tending to write in a stream of consciousness style, instead of refining and editing their thinking before committing it to paper.
They might then use their expertise to set a target such as:
- ‘I’d like you to think through your thoughts first, speak them aloud, and then pare them down so they express your ideas more clearly. Then put them into a written sentence.’
This target is essentially a stepping stone helping the learner to take a first step in changing the process of sentence construction they rely on.
We can imagine the teacher helping the learner to build on this over time, by giving them further targets.
The teacher’s aim would be to help the learner improve their process of constructing written sentences over a longer period, aware that this needs to be done gradually and cannot be achieved all at once.
Securing Knowledge
Secure knowledge is an absolute necessity for successful learning, so it is natural that there will be times when you decide to focus your targets on this.
In these situations, it is often about helping learners to improve the depth, range and accuracy of their knowledge.
Frequently this entails asking them to revisit things they have already studied, with a view to gaining a sounder understanding.
However, it can also mean focussing on mistakes and misconceptions learners are making – either because of their insecure knowledge or due to them applying knowledge inexpertly.
For example, a science teacher might set a target like this:
- ‘Compare the model answer to how you have answered the question. Look at the greater amount of scientific knowledge included in the model. I’d like you to go back to your notes and identify which areas are lacking in detail. You can then improve these.’
Here the emphasis is on helping the learner to understand that their performance in the task (answering the question) is directly related to the knowledge they currently possess.
The target directs the learner to develop and finesse that knowledge.
It is often useful to suggest different techniques learners can use to secure their knowledge.
For example:
- Practice testing
- Synthesising knowledge into new forms
- Application of knowledge to tasks or questions
- Creation of mind-maps
- Teaching knowledge to a peer or parent
All these techniques offer learners active ways in which they can revisit, develop and enhance their existing knowledge.
In the process they help to secure a broader and more nuanced level of understanding.
Increasing the Level of Challenge
You might decide to focus your targets on increasing the level of challenge.
This involves assessing the extent to which learners have been challenged by the tasks you’ve set.
As you mark learner work, you will be asking yourself whether learners have been pushed to the edge of what they can do without support – and whether they have had their thinking, skills or abilities stretched beyond what they can do comfortably.
Setting targets based on this information means first deciding how challenged learners have been and then deciding whether a sufficient level of challenge will come from a target connected to their existing work or something that goes beyond this.
For example, a maths teacher might be marking learner work and identify two different learners, one who is challenged by the current tasks and one who is finding them too easy.
In the case of the former, a challenging target does not need to introduce anything new.
The level of challenge can be increased simply by asking the learner to persist with the current work and to perhaps think about some additional aspect of it.
In the latter case, the learner needs a target that goes beyond what the class are presently doing.
This illustrates how assessment of current levels of challenge informs what a challenging target looks like.
You might also decide to increase the level of challenge by asking learners to identify where and when the work has been too easy for them.
You can then use this information to inform target-setting.
This sees you inviting learners into the process of assessing the right level of challenge; something that promotes independence and encourages them to see high challenge in a positive light. Something to strive for, rather than avoid.
Broadening Learners’ Thinking
This is our penultimate suggestion for a target-setting rationale.
Perhaps you will decide that the aim of your targets is to broaden learners’ thinking.
This could be an aim that remains dominant throughout the year, or something you turn to at certain points, such as the beginning of a new topic.
Either way, the type of targets you set will alter based on your choice.
This again demonstrates the subtle but significant impact defining a purpose for your target-setting can have on the feedback learners receive and, by extension, the way in which they focus their efforts.
Here is a selection of targets informed by the desire to broaden learners’ thinking:
- (Literacy) ‘I’d like you to try reading a book from a different genre. Choose something you don’t normally read. Tell me what you think about your choice, and we’ll talk about how you could use some of the ideas in your own writing.’
- (Geography) ‘Pick a European country you know very little about. Research the country and see how its economic, geographic and demographic landscape is similar and different to the UK. Then tell me how your research could inform your future work.’
- (Primary Science) ‘Pick a material from the list. Choose something you don’t know much about. Then, team up with someone who chose the same material. Your target is to become experts in this – and to be ready to tell the rest of the class all about it.’
In each case, the teacher is using targets to push learners’ thinking – either beyond the boundaries of the lesson, or beyond the boundaries of the familiar.
Promoting Independence
The final suggestion for a rationale to underpin target-setting is the promotion of independence.
If this is the animating purpose guiding your target-setting, then you will be thinking about how your feedback can help learners take ownership of their work and their learning.
This might be appropriate to all learners in your class, or it might be relevant to a select few.
For example, you might identify a group of learners who struggle to pull themselves out of a passive relationship with their learning.
These learners tend to believe they are not in control of their own destinies and that their efforts do not influence how successful they are.
Targets that promote independence are often about helping learners adopt new ways of thinking or working.
The aim is to shift their outlook from passive to active.
That is, one in which their own decisions determine what happens with their learning.
One in which they understand and believe in their own sense of agency.
Here are three examples:
- ‘When you find the work challenging, I would like you to try adopting a different strategy. See if this works and, if it doesn’t, try to work out why. If you’re still having difficulties, then let me know. We can discuss what you tried and look for an alternative together.’
- ‘I’d like to see you using more trial and error in your work. Instead of giving up when you think you can’t be successful, try something out. Don’t worry if it goes wrong. Have a go, think about what happened and then see what you can learn from it.’
- ‘Make sure you try three different things before asking me for help. Think about the problem yourself, then consult a book, then ask a friend for their advice. If you’re still stuck, talk to me about it. If you aren’t, then you’ve solved the problem yourself!’
In each of these examples, notice how the target encourages learners to see themselves as the primary movers in their own learning.
The implicit message is that success is more likely to arrive through persistence and taking control than through giving up or resigning oneself to a belief that nothing can change.
This set of exemplar rationales is not comprehensive, but it does cover several key areas and gives a sense of the kind of impact having an underpinning purpose can have.
You can pick and choose from what I’ve exemplified, identify your own, or modify any of the above.
Whatever you choose to do, remember the central message is that having a purpose clarifies what you are doing and why you are doing it, increasing the efficacy of your marking, your feedback, and your target-setting.
