The impact of goal setting on motivation towards achievement

Research has shown that students who set themselves goals are more likely to see behavioural changes if the goals are: highly specific, appropriately difficult, targeted, remembered, and the individual is committed to achieving them (Leonard, 1996). Level one undergraduates in the Brighton Business School study Personal Academic Skills modules, which are credit bearing, facilitated modules. Both personal development planning within the context of student progress files (as recommend by the Dearing Report*) and the concept of continuing professional development, are implicit in the module content. The module gives students the opportunity to set specific and targeted goals. The presenters will report on the first phase of a longitudinal study which investigates whether business students enter higher education with the ability to specify their goals and to detail what they need to do to achieve their goals. They will also outline the future direction of the study, which will revisit the original participants to determine whether facilitated Personal Academic Skills Modules which include personal development planning have influenced the students’ goals in terms of the themes identified and their specificity.