Long Term Goal Setting and Achievement

My recent course, Change and Continuous Improvement, for my school administrative credential through Brandman University has forced me to think of goal setting and achievement in a new light. Everyone sets goals every day about many things. These involve mental and physical lists, ideas discussed with or told to spouses, children, or friends, and those future ideas quietly kept in the back of our minds. In order for goals to be achieved, performance must take place, and goals affect performance in four key ways: direction, energy, persistence, and action (Locke & Latham, 2002)

Goals direct where we are going, and specifically goals direct our attention to what is relevant about achieving those goals. This is why feedback is so important. Feedback enables us to focus on the exact details in the goal process and alter our direction through the steps in achieving the goal (Locke & Latham, 2002).

Goals create energy. The harder the goal, the more likely people are to expend energy figuring out how to achieve it (Locke & Latham, 1985). Timelines also add to the energy process by creating a sense of urgency. Long term goals should be broken into smaller short term goals so the sense of urgency is maintained through the goal achieving process (Locke & Latham, 1985). 

Goals require persistence, and the harder the goal, the more persistent people will be when there is a defined and tight deadline involved. Research shows that persistence declines when timelines are vague or loose (Locke & Latham, 2002). People work more quickly and intensely with short deadlines, so keeping people persistent requires breaking long term goals into short term parts and holding to those short term deadlines. 

Goals naturally force people to take action. People first tap into the skills and knowledge they have that relate to that goal, and then they adapt what they know to the new goal and situation. If the goal is entirely unfamiliar, or people have little experience, allowing flexibility and creativity in achieving the goal produces greater results (Locke & Latham, 2002). 

So how do we make sure our goals are achieved? Moderating goal achievement requires goal commitment and feedback in relation to task complexity (Locke & Latham, 2002). Creating commitment to a goal can be varied, ranging from open declarations of commitment to creating an inspirational vision. Often times the most beneficial way of creating commitment to long term goals is involving key people in the goal creating process. Setting goals for others requires leaders to go through a motivational buy-in process (Case, 1998), whereas involving members in the goal setting process enables members to work collaboratively and cognitively, which creates an almost immediate sense of commitment (Locke & Latham, 2002). Goal commitment is also affected by self-efficacy, which means that leaders need to ensure that their members have adequate training, have proper role models to look to for help and inspiration, and are persuasively told that their leaders have confidence in them to achieve the goal (Locke & Latham, 2002).

Feedback is crucial in achieving long term goals. Not only must people know the long term goal and the short term steps for achieving it, but they must continually know how they are doing. People must know that their leaders are monitoring their progress and expecting results or the goals become ambiguous and people lose interest and motivation (Case, 1996). Continual feedback and transparent data are necessary for people to self-reflect and modify short term goals and practices to maintain the level of urgency necessary to achieve long term goals. 

People are motivated to achieve goals for various reasons, and this is true even when a group is working toward the same goal. In general, those who are part of the goal setting process are often motivated by personal investment and satisfaction, whereas those who are assigned goals by a supervisor are often motivated by extrinsic rewards, such as money (Locke & Latham, 2002). Regardless, take time to recognize and reward the short term wins during the long term goal process. Letting people know they are doing well is part of the crucial feedback process.

Explicit and planned long term goal setting is a process that can have many benefits for the workplace: people are more invested in their jobs and work, productivity and performance improve, people self-regulate their performances, and they create the self-efficacy to handle goal conflict which leads to higher goal setting and more creative ways to achieve those goals. 

References: 
Case, J. (1998). Keeping score. Retrieved on August 19, 2016, from https://eds-b-ebscohost-com.libproxy.chapman.edu/ehost/detail/detail?sid=60d01883-7814-49a7-8e30-bbd2fc7c0fb7%40sessionmgr120&vid=5&hid=114&bdata=JkF1dGhUeXBlPWlwLHVpZCxjb29raWUsdXJsJnNpdGU9ZWhvc3QtbGl2ZQ%3d%3d#AN=748962&db=aph

Locke, E. A., and Latham, G. P. (1985). The application of goal setting to sports. 
Retrieved on August 20, 2016, from http://fitnessforlife.org/AcuCustom/Sitename/Documents/DocumentItem/8790.pdf

Locke, E. A., and Latham, G. P. (2002). Building a practically useful theory of goal setting and task motivation. Retrieved on August 20, 2016, from http://www.owlnet.rice.edu/~antonvillado/courses/08c_psyc101002/Research%20Report%204.pdf

Communicating with Parents via Technology

Communicating with Parents via Technology

I attended the EdTechTeam Google Apps for Education (GAFE) Summit in Bakersfield in June and what a remarkable and overwhelming platform for educators to learn new, innovative ways to use technology in the classroom! Coupled with my June administrative course through Brandman University about school, parent, and community partnerships, I decided to give more thought about the basics of school-parent communication via technology.

My current school, which is a K-6 elementary, prides itself in using technology on a daily basis with students. We have a 1:1 ratio of iPads for students in Grades 3-6, and the lower grades have access to iPad centers, computer stations, and the computer lab on a daily basis. I can't imagine teaching and guiding learning without an iPad, and yet I rarely use technology to communicate with parents. Our school has seen a marked decline in parent involvement at family night events over the last several years, but we don't utilize technology to communicate events and activities with parents. We are a good ol' paper flyer school, but also complain that parents never check backpacks.

So, what is the reality of parents and technology? Is this something worth the time and investment? I did a little research to find out how likely our parents are to use technology for school communication. Statistica (2015) reports that 282.1 million people in the US use the Internet monthly, and adults ages 25-34 average 82.5 hours of app time on smartphones per month. Smith (2015) from the Pew Research Center states that almost two-thirds of Americans own smartphones. Duggan, Lenhart, Lampe, and Ellison (2015) indicate that 74% of parents use Facebook on a regular basis. Also, dads are more likely to use Twitter and LinkedIn, while moms are more likely to use Pinterest and Instagram.

So, looking at the numbers, I would say that parents are highly likely to access school and teacher communication about their students via technology, especially at the elementary level because those are the young, up-and-coming parents who thrive on technology. Gilgore (2015) cites a recent study that showed frequent texting about academic goals between teachers and parents increased student achievement. In another study, student summer school engagement increased with phone calls and text messages to parents from teachers. Gilgore underscores that "light-touch communication" is most effective when parents receive specific information about how to help their students, rather than just receiving generic messages. 

Given the research, I'd say that my school and I need to move forward and communicate with parents more frequently using technology. We need to spread school-wide information quickly and effectively with our Facebook page, and we need to start having teachers communicate with each other more via Twitter ("Hey, check out what we're doing with math today!"). We need to utilize our student information system, Infinite Campus, for parents to access assignments and grades. Overall, I just need to get connected and start communicating with parents with technology.

Paper flyers and report cards won't completely go away (at least for now), but I can be a more effective educator by using the digital platforms that my students' parents are already using in their every day lives. Hopefully we can improve our communication and our students' achievement.

Reference

Gilmore, S. (2015). Probing the impact of parent-teacher digital communication. Education Week. Retrieved on June 24, 2016, from http://www.edweek.org/ew/articles/2015/09/16/probing-the-impact-of-parent-teacher-digital-communication.html

Using Data Visualization to Improve Decision Making

Using Data Visualization to Improve Decision Making

This past course I took with Brandman University for my school administrative credential dealt with data driven decision making. Part of that process was reviewing data from my school to create a school growth plan and visually representing the data for more efficient review and identification of needs. Although I am accustomed to data visualization and data discovery tools, I had never needed to create my own data visualization. Now that I have been through the process, I truly understand how powerful data visualization is to the improvement of decision making.

Humans are natural pattern detectors, and much more so with visual information. We process visual information exponentially faster than printed text, which is understandable considering our brains are designed to receive and process a visual world. Gutierrez (2014) states that 90% of information received by the brain is visual, we can process visual information in less than a tenth of a second, and our brains can pick up on visual information that it saw for only 13 milliseconds.

Studies and business application show that data visualization improves decision making in various ways. A study by the Aberdeen Group (White, 2013) indicated remarkable improvement when businesses utilized data discovery tools, software that allows individual users to interact and manipulate data. Organizational members were 22% more likely to initiate projects and drive solutions, and 48% of users were able to access information without the assistance of IT staff (White, 2013). Additionally, 74% of organizations reported data discovery tools allowed the organization to make changes to their analytic environment, and managers of companies that utilize data discovery tools were 47% more likely to share data through annotations, charts, and reports (White, 2013).

Gentile (2014) and Gutierrez (2014) discuss the various ways data visualization improves decision making, which essentially boils down to this: appeal, patterns, language, interaction, and speed. Data visualization represents the data graphically or pictorially, so the information becomes more narrative. It also allows the brain to digest the information much more quickly than in text form, so trends can be quickly identified and acted upon. Data discovery tools allow users to interact with and manipulate data, again making data decision making quicker and more relational.

Overall, I'm sold on data visualization. As a future administrator, I will make every effort to utilize these tools to empower my staff and our data driven decision making.

Kick Out Complacency and Begin to Change

I started my fifteenth year of teaching in August at a crossroads. For several years I have become complacent with my career, but I've been debating whether complacency is a bad thing. It seemed somewhat comforting to be able to do my job so well that it's automatic, although upon further reflection I knew deep down that I'm not really doing my job that well anymore, especially since full implementation of Common Core in our district. Honestly, I've just been hanging on to the hope that all those strategies and skills I had successfully developed as a teacher under the old California standards would transfer over to teaching Common Core, but proof is in the pudding, and my students' SBAC scores are far from the scores I saw with STAR testing. Taking testing out of the equation, I just haven't had the fervor for teaching I had in the past.

At some point between August and November, I realized I can't continue this way--that I need a change, and that prompted me to enroll in Brandman University's Educational Leadership and Administrative program. Now, my ultimate goal is to become an administrator, but "in the meantime" is really important because I'm shedding the complacency and looking at my effectiveness as a teacher in a critical and response way. Complacency doesn't allow me to do that, and what I'm finding amazing is that it only takes one leap of faith to make others start questioning their complacency.

In finishing my first two courses for this program, I've revisited the concepts of leadership that I packed away after undergraduate and graduate studies in psychology and education. Two concepts that really stand out for me are change and leadership because in a complacent environment both are really difficult to make happen. In his book Leading Change, John Kotter (2012) points out nine sources of complacency in the workplace: no visible crisis, too many visible resources, low overall performance standards, focus on narrow goals, focus on the wrong performance indexes, lack of sufficient feedback, a low-confrontation culture, human nature, and over-optimism from senior management (p. 41). I have to say that in August I could personally identify with the majority of these reasons, and although they are reasons that complacency exists, they are not reasons that complacency should continue.

So how do you go about creating change for yourself and ultimately your environment?

Take a look at this quick video about creating change:

Now, I know this may seem a little drastic, but it outlines the point I'm going to make, which is creating change means creating a vision for yourself, a vision that goes beyond the comfort of complacency. Two ways to overcome complacency are to "embrace creativity" and "help someone else achieve" (Hanley, 2014). Vision needs creativity, and if complacency has a stronghold, you may need to latch on to someone else's vision and help that person achieve. Leadership is a by-product of both methods of overcoming complacency, which leads back to my decision to enter the MAELA program and making a change for myself as a professional. I have created a vision of my future and how I can impact education, and I want to help other educators be successful so their students are successful. The best way to do that is to kick out complacency and begin to change.

Hanley, R. (2014, January 08). 7 easy ways to overcome complacency and make good on your resolutions. Retrieved March 05, 2016, from http://murraygrp.com/7-easy-ways-overcome-complacency/

Kotter, J. P. (2012). Leading change. Boston, MA: Harvard Business Review Press.

Kulbokas, T. (2011, April 6). How to start a movement. Retrieved March 05, 2016, from https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=olAnAxAz9RE