To help improve the board discussion to include more science and philosophy content, I am going to resume my psychology posts. This go around I have a more targeted approach. These posts will be periodic, long form posts that include a discussion of various topics and research related to goals. The current plan is to start broadly and discuss goals and goal pursuit in general. Eventual topics will include things like effective strategies, motivation, the why-how distinction, meaningfulness, cognition, and affect.

What is a goal?
I first checked the dictionary.com definition, which is "the result or achievement toward which effort is directed." "aim." "end." I would not consider this a fully encompassing definition of a goal as human beings use them. "Result toward which effort is directed" implies using effort to move us closer to the goal, to reach whatever the end state is. However, we set goals concerned with both desirable and undesirable end states. For example, if I would like to squat 405 x 5, I might set my goal as "Squat 405 x 5." The goal statement refers to the particular end state that I desire to reach. Other goals might relate to an undesired end state that I seek to avoid. For example, if I want to stop smoking, I may make the goal statement "Don't smoke this week." Smoking is not an end that I would direct my efforts towards. Rather, I would direct my efforts to move me away from smoking. A better definition of a goal is "the object or aim of an action." This definition allows us the freedom to specify that our aim may be to approach or avoid a particular end state.

Elements of a Goal (note: not an exhaustive list)
Goals consist of different elements. Elements is used broadly here and can refer to different goal-related attitudes, different types of goals, or the specificity of a goal, among others. Below are listed several elements.

Goal difficulty (high vs. low, e.g. making 10 sweaters vs. 20 sweaters in a day).
Abstract vs. concrete (Travel vs. visit Machu Pichu)
Goal commitment
Goal commitment of course refers to how committed one is to the goal. Goal-related attitudes that significantly impact goal commitment are the perceived likelihood of achievement and how important the goal is to the person.

Performance vs. Learning Goals
A performance goal is one that sets a standard on a task for someone to aim at reaching. For example, we might state our classroom goal as a performance goal and say "I want to make a 95 on the quiz." Therefore, anything that is lower than a 95 is considered failure.
A learning goal is one that might also set a standard, but the standard is based on knowledge, strategy or skill acquisition. For example, if we state our class goal as a learning goal, we might say "I want to learn how to solve trigonometric integrals."
Whether you set a performance or a learning goal is not a trivial distinction. Some situations require that people learn how to do new things or perform tasks that are complex and require high levels of effort for a long period of time. Setting a performance goal in these situations causes poorer performance. Instead, a learning goal will result in a better long term outcome. Performance goals have their uses and work best in shorter-term, targeted situations where tasks are not overly complicated.

If you have any thoughts about what else goals consist of or are related to, please feel free to share them. I am thinking the next post will dive in to motivational orientation.

Interesting! Thank you for posting.

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Whether you set a performance or a learning goal is not a trivial distinction. Some situations require that people learn how to do new things or perform tasks that are complex and require high levels of effort for a long period of time. Setting a performance goal in these situations causes poorer performance. Instead, a learning goal will result in a better long term outcome. Performance goals have their uses and work best in shorter-term, targeted situations where tasks are not overly complicated.

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Do mind giving an example of this? I'm in a complex, high effort profession, but nearly all of our assessments involve performance goals (mostly minimum scores on various tests). How do you verifty learning goals are achieved without some sort of performance goal?

Sure thing. Learning goals typically are set like "Identify and use X number of strategies/processes/procedures." They work best in situations where it isn't that clear how to go about doing some particular thing. Once the procedures are understood and automatized to a degree, performance goals become more useful.


A classroom example might be something like "Learn and use four different trigonometric identities to solve the problems in section 6.4."

A performance goal example would be something like "Solve all the problems in section 6.4."


In some sense, a learning goal is a linguistic trick that adds an additional phrase, but the focus is clearly on new knowledge or skills to be acquired. It places the individual's focus on the process rather than the outcome.

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I would not consider this a fully encompassing definition of a goal as human beings use them.

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I agree. Humans struggle with them because the word is used for too many things.

That makes sense. It also explains a lot about my kids' common core homework, ie "solve this problem in 8 different ways"

For a good guide to effectively utilizing goals, read Zig Ziglar's book See You at the Top. I'd especially recommend it to any teachers out there.