Learning conversations with KS5 students: independent target setting

Context for the project

This academic year (2021-22) I’m leading a college-wide research project at my school aimed at improving independent target setting (and hopefully therefore progress) with KS5. The main aim is for students to lead conversations with their teachers setting their own targets based on how they’ve done in an assessment, and then to work on those targets independently. We think this will help their progress hugely!

In addition, this is helping foster more general independence in students, and reduce their reliance on teachers to tell them what to do. I know that when I was at university, I didn’t really know how I should improve (or to be honest, learn stuff independently in the first place). This project will allow students some experience here (and will help even if they’re choosing a different post-KS5 path).

Theoretical background

There are two ways I can categorise this using the theory. The first of these links with achievement goal theory, in that the targets students set for themselves are aimed at helping them to master the content and skills being examined. Setting these types of goals (known as mastery oriented achievement goals) has been shown to have links to better progress, and hopefully that’ll be replicated here.

I also hope that this project will help to improve student motivation. Maybe not every student will absolutely love it, but I think that giving them that bit more ownership of their studies will allow more students to thrive, since they have a bit more autonomy. Increasing autonomy is a key aspect of motivating students according to self-determination theory (which I’ve written about here). If students are more motivated, then they may work that bit harder.

What the project looks like in practice

At a few key points in the academic year, all the students in KS5 will engage in ‘learning conversations’ with one teacher per subject. The student will have received their assessment back and some feedback based on that. At this point, the student will discuss with their teacher what their main targets are (they’ll choose two), and explain to the teacher what they’re going to do to work on these targets. Crucially, the student will tell the teacher how they’ll evidence this work.

During the conversation, the student will fill in a Microsoft Form with the details of their targets. Then, I collate all their conversations onto a single sheet (using mail merge on Word) which students can put into their planners.

Following this, students will spend the time they have between conversations (roughly half a term, though this varies a little bit with the school calendar) to work on their targets independently, before showing their teachers the evidence of this work at the next conversation. Repeat.

How will students know what targets to choose?

The final decision is the student’s to make, but the teacher is there to help guide the student. Over time, hopefully the students will get better at choosing specific, measurable actions that they can take to make additional progress before their next assessment point.

This will also be helped by students knowing how they can work on their targets. One of my colleagues designed a ‘homework menu’ for Physics students last year (which is absolutely glorious, and I’ve put an example version at the bottom of this page). It gives students ideas of things they can do, but we also generally let students do other tasks too, as long as we can see evidence of some work.

I’m teaching Sociology to Y12 this year, so I have designed a similar tool for that too. Hopefully this will give other teachers an idea of tasks their students could choose from.

I have removed the school-specific hyperlinks to resources for students to use, but these are highlighted in red so it’s clear where they were.

How and when will I know if it’s worked?

There are two main ways I’ll know if it’s working. The first is simply by reading the targets that students are choosing for themselves, and identifying whether they’re specific, measurable and realistic in the time that is available (i.e. ‘SMART’ targets). If they are, then great! It would suggest that students can set themselves targets. Of course, whether they ever use the skill again post-18 is up to them.

I’ll also regularly talk to teachers from various departments to try and understand their experiences. Maybe this will take the form of a questionnaire, but informal chatting during the year will also be helpful. If teachers can see any positive difference in the progress students make, then I’ll know it’s worth it.

Towards the end of the year, I’ll be writing up the project so I’ll likely post about this again then, if not before. Stay tuned!