A central tenet of education is about improving – after all, that’s what learning is about. This Conversation article looks at goal setting as part of the improvement process and finds it works well for those in disadvantaged situations.

Setting goals to try to outdo your previous best effort is known as growth goal setting or personal best goals. It is fundamentally focused on self improvement, such as investing more time or effort in a task than before or striving to achieve a higher result in the next test than the previous one.

Research over the past decade into approaches like these in education has shown it has many benefits. They include improved engagement, learning and achievement.

Read More …