The art of goal setting

Ken Beatty
A business woman looking and pointing at a wall full of post it notes

Reading time: 4 minutes

Dr. Ken Beatty defines goals and explains why we should think of them as doors to open rather than fixed targets.

Goals as doors

My eldest son, Nathan, failed to achieve the biggest goal of his life: becoming a garbage truck driver. It's hardly surprising - he was only four years old at the time. His ambition likely dissolved once he realized that garbage trucks sometimes smell bad. Before then, he'd mostly observed them from the safety of our apartment window.

As is the case with most people, his goals have changed. Completing his degree in international economics, hoping to work in technology startups until he forms one himself. Or maybe not. Goals evolve.

Researchers and teachers have known for decades that goals are vitally important motivations in general education and language learning. After examining 800+ studies, Hattie (2009) identified goals as among the most powerful instructional interventions for improving student success.

The basic message is that goals are good. However, other researchers (Rowe, Mazzotti, Ingram, & Lee, 2017) suggest that teachers have trouble embedding them in lessons.

Part of the problem might be in finding a way to visualize goals. Goals are often pictured as archery targets or soccer nets, but a more useful metaphor is a door. When we have a goal, we may not fully understand it until we enter into the goal, as if it were a room, inevitably finding choices of other doors leading off in other directions.

Understanding where goals come from

Before we start to set goals for our students, it's important that we have a degree of self-awareness and understand where our own attitudes and ideas come from.

As teachers, we tend to resemble the people who inspired us most. Our own teachers, good and bad, shape our attitudes toward teaching and language-learning goals.

Who was your favorite teacher? In my case, my all-time favorite teacher was Mr. Chiga, who, in 1970, taught me Grade 7 and was about to retire. He was a Renaissance man. Short and tough with fingers like cigars, he would occasionally lead us from the playground up two flights of stairs to our classroom… walking on his hands. Yet these same hands were delicate enough for his hobby of making violins, a fact I only learned later, because, unlike me, Mr. Chiga was modest.

Mr. Chiga loved literature and taught us Greek and Roman history with a sense of joy that has never left me. One would think that his educational goals would be a perfect foundation for my own. Perhaps. But a quick check on the timeline shows that if he was about to retire in 1970, he was probably born in 1905 and likely graduated from teachers' college around 1925.

It's ironic that although my Ph.D. is in the area of computer-assisted language learning, my favorite teacher began his career two years before the invention of the television, and, moreover, all his teachers would have been born in the 1800s.

It's a long story to make a short point: as teachers, we need to reflect on where our teaching and learning goals come from and question them. We also need to avoid those things that our least favorite teachers did.

Setting goals

Are the goals we set for our students sometimes too low? Undoubtedly.

As a Grade 11 student, my only ambition in life was to take a two-year photo technician course. My counselor discouraged me, saying I wasn't academic enough and suggested a job at the wood mill instead. In a sense, he closed a door.

I switched schools where another favorite teacher, Mr. Ferguson, patiently kept me after school for six weeks, teaching me how to write essays and, by extension, how to think. He dangled the motivation of a university education before me and set me on my path there. And that was a door opened.

So what's the lesson here? More than just knowing where goals come from, we also need to be aware of the power of goal setting and how it can drastically alter a particular student's life trajectory.

Closing doors, rather than opening them, often stunts growth and limits possibilities. It can even lead to students forming life-long assumptions about themselves that just aren't true - "I'm no good at math," "I'm not cut out for independent travel", etc. Opening doors, however, can bring our students entirely new perspectives on life.

Expecting goals to change

When it comes to changing goals, there are a number of factors to take into account, including forming a better sense of self. We might start off with many ambitions but we measure ourselves against the realities of our skill sets and modify our goals.

For example, a student who experiences a lot of success in learning English is more likely to consider careers that require it. Teachers, too, are more likely to offer direction: "You write very well. Have you considered a career in journalism?"

Today, countless jobs require a second language or provide better promotion opportunities for students who speak two or more languages. Yet, students oriented toward employment opportunities may have difficulty understanding the long-term advantages of learning a second language if specific jobs are not on their radar.

This leads to two questions:

  • What goals should we help students set for themselves?
  • And how should teachers suggest them?

Many goals are based on the educational standards that govern our profession. The Global Scale of English (GSE), in particular, is helpful to both textbook writers and teachers in identifying language goals and provides teachers with detailed steps to achieve them.

But beyond such standards are those two magic ingredients that teachers share with language learners: joy and motivation.

Teachers spread joy in learning by example, making language learning engaging and pleasurable. Teachers also motivate students by helping them identify personal goals, giving them reasons why language proficiency is not just worthwhile in general but is perhaps one key to future success.

It might even lead to a job driving a garbage truck.

Read more about language teaching

References

Hattie, J. A. (2009).Visible Learning: A Synthesis Of Over 800 Meta-Analyses Relating To Achievement.New York: Routledge

Rowe, D.A, Mazzotti, V.L., Ingram, A., & Lee, S. (2017). Effects of Goal-Setting Instruction on Academic Engagement for Students At Risk.Career Development and Transition for Exceptional Individuals.40(1) 25–35.

More blogs from app

  • A teacher helping a teenage student working at her desk in a library

    How teachers can use the GSE for professional development

    By
    Reading time: 4.5 minutes

    As English teachers, we’re usually the ones helping others grow. We guide learners through challenges, celebrate their progress and push them to reach new heights. But what about our own growth? How do we, as educators, continue to develop and refine our practice?

    The Global Scale of English (GSE) is often seen as a tool for assessing students. However, in my experience, it can also be a powerful guide for teachers who want to become more intentional, reflective, and confident in their teaching. Here's how the GSE has helped me in my own journey as an English teacher and how it can support yours too.

    About the GSE

    The GSE is a proficiency scale developed by app. It measures English ability across four skills – listening, speaking, reading and writing – on a scale from 10 to 90. It’s aligned with the CEFR but offers more detailed learning objectives, which can be incredibly useful in diverse teaching contexts.

    I first encountered the GSE while exploring ways to better personalize learning objectives in my Business English classes. As a teacher in a non-formal education setting in Indonesia, I often work with students who don’t fit neatly into one CEFR level. I needed something more precise, more flexible, and more connected to real classroom practice. That’s when the GSE became a turning point.

    Reflecting on our teaching practice

    The GSE helped me pause and reflect. I started reading through the learning objectives and asking myself important questions. Were my lessons really aligned with what learners at this level needed? Was I challenging them just enough or too much?

    By using the GSE as a mirror, I began to see areas where I could improve. For example, I realized that, although I was confident teaching speaking skills, I wasn’t always giving enough attention to writing development. The GSE didn’t judge me. It simply showed me where I could grow.

    Planning with purpose

    One of the best things about the GSE is that it brings clarity to lesson planning. Instead of guessing whether an activity is suitable for a student’s level, I now check the GSE objectives. If I know a learner is at GSE 50 in speaking, I can design a role-play that matches that level of complexity. If another learner is at GSE 60, I can challenge them with more open-ended tasks.

    Planning becomes easier and more purposeful. I don’t just create lessons, I design learning experiences that truly meet students where they are.

    Collaborating with other teachers

    The GSE has also become a shared language for collaboration. When I run workshops or peer mentoring sessions, I often invite teachers to explore the GSE Toolkit together. We look at learning objectives, discuss how they apply to our learners, and brainstorm ways to adapt materials.

    These sessions are not just about theory: they’re energizing. Teachers leave with new ideas, renewed motivation and a clearer sense of how to bring their teaching to the next level.

    Getting started with the GSE

    If you’re curious about how to start using the GSE for your own growth, here are a few simple steps:

    • Visit the GSE Teacher Toolkit and explore the learning objectives for the skills and levels you teach.
    • Choose one or two objectives that resonate with you and reflect on whether your current lessons address them.
    • Try adapting a familiar activity to better align with a specific GSE range.
    • Use the GSE when planning peer observations or professional learning communities. It gives your discussions a clear focus.

    Case study from my classroom

    I once had a private Business English student preparing for a job interview. Her speaking skills were solid – around GSE 55 – but her writing was more limited, probably around GSE 45. Instead of giving her the same tasks across both skills, I personalized the lesson.

    For speaking, we practiced mock interviews using complex questions. For writing, I supported her with guided sentence frames for email writing. By targeting her actual levels, not just a general CEFR level, she improved faster and felt more confident.

    That experience reminded me that when we teach with clarity, learners respond with progress.

    Challenges and solutions

    Of course, using the GSE can feel overwhelming at first. There are many descriptors, and it can take time to get familiar with the scale. My advice is to start small: focus on one skill or one level. Also, use the Toolkit as a companion, not a checklist.

    Another challenge is integrating the GSE into existing materials, and this is where technology can help. I often use AI tools like ChatGPT to adjust or rewrite tasks so they better match specific GSE levels. This saves time and makes differentiation easier.

    Teachers deserve development too

    Teaching is a lifelong journey. The GSE doesn’t just support our students, it also supports us. It helps us reflect, plan, and collaborate more meaningfully. Most of all, it reminds us that our growth as teachers is just as important as the progress of our learners.

    If you’re looking for a simple, practical, and inspiring way to guide your professional development, give the GSE a try. It helped me grow, and I believe it can help you too.

    Additional resources

  • A woman sat on a sofa with a tv controller

    Five great film scenes that can help improve your English

    By

    Watching films can be a great way for people to learn English. We all have our favourite movie moments and, even as passive viewers, they're probably teaching you more than you realise. Here's a selection of our favourite scenes, along with the reasons why they're educational as well as entertaining.

  • A young woman sat in a library with headphones around her neck reading a book

    Does progress in English slow as you get more advanced?

    By Ian Wood
    Reading time: 4 minutes

    Why does progression seem to slow down as an English learner moves from beginner to more advanced skills?

    The journey of learning English

    When presenting at ELT conferences, I often ask the audience – typically teachers and school administrators – “When you left home today, to start your journey here, did you know where you were going?” The audience invariably responds with a laugh and says yes, of course. I then ask, “Did you know roughly when you would arrive at your destination?” Again the answer is, of course, yes. “But what about your students on their English learning journey? Can they say the same?” At this point, the laughter stops.

    All too often English learners find themselves without a clear picture of the journey they are embarking on and the steps they will need to take to achieve their goals. We all share a fundamental need for orientation, and in a world of mobile phone GPS we take it for granted. Questions such as: Where am I? Where am I going? When will I get there? are answered instantly at the touch of a screen. If you’re driving along a motorway, you get a mileage sign every three miles.

    When they stop appearing regularly we soon feel uneasy. How often do English language learners see mileage signs counting down to their learning goal? Do they even have a specific goal?

    Am I there yet?

    The key thing about GPS is that it’s very precise. You can see your start point, where you are heading and tell, to the mile or kilometer, how long your journey will be. You can also get an estimated time of arrival to the minute. As Mike Mayor mentioned in his post about what it means to be fluent, the same can’t be said for understanding and measuring English proficiency. For several decades, the ELL industry got by with the terms ‘beginner’, ‘elementary’, ‘pre-intermediate’ and ‘advanced’ – even though there was no definition of what they meant, where they started and where they ended.

    The CEFR has become widely accepted as a measure of English proficiency, bringing an element of shared understanding of what it means to be at a particular level in English. However, the wide bands that make up the CEFR can result in a situation where learners start a course of study as B1 and, when they end the course, they are still within the B1 band. That doesn’t necessarily mean that their English skills haven’t improved – they might have developed substantially – but it’s just that the measurement system isn’t granular enough to pick up these improvements in proficiency.

    So here’s the first weakness in our English language GPS and one that’s well on the way to being remedied with the Global Scale of English (GSE). Because the GSE measures proficiency on a 10-90 scale across each of the four skills, students using assessment tools reporting on the GSE are able to see incremental progress in their skills even within a CEFR level. So we have the map for an English language GPS to be able to track location and plot the journey to the end goal.

    ‘The intermediate plateau’

    When it comes to pinpointing how long it’s going to take to reach that goal, we need to factor in the fact that the amount of effort it takes to improve your English increases as you become more proficient. Although the bands in the CEFR are approximately the same width, the law of diminishing returns means that the better your English is to begin with, the harder it is to make further progress – and the harder it is to feel that progress is being made.

    That’s why many an English language-learning journey gets abandoned on the intermediate plateau. With no sense of progression or a tangible, achievable goal on the horizon, the learner can become disoriented and demoralised.

    To draw another travel analogy, when you climb 100 meters up a mountain at 5,000 meters above sea level the effort required is greater than when you climb 100 meters of gentle slope down in the foothills. It’s exactly the same 100 meter distance, it’s just that those hundred 100 meters require progressively more effort the higher up you are, and the steeper the slope. So, how do we keep learners motivated as they pass through the intermediate plateau?

    Education, effort and motivation

    We have a number of tools available to keep learners on track as they start to experience the law of diminishing returns. We can show every bit of progress they are making using tools that capture incremental improvements in ability. We can also provide new content that challenges the learner in a way that’s realistic.

    Setting unrealistic expectations and promising outcomes that aren’t deliverable is hugely demotivating for the learner. It also has a negative impact on teachers – it’s hard to feel job satisfaction when your students are feeling increasingly frustrated by their apparent lack of progress.

    Big data is providing a growing bank of information. In the long term this will deliver a much more precise estimate of effort required to reach higher levels of proficiency, even down to a recommendation of the hours required to go from A to B and how those hours are best invested. That way, learners and teachers alike would be able to see where they are now, where they want to be and a path to get there. It’s a fully functioning English language learning GPS system, if you like.