My child is an average performer at school.He tries to do better, but he is not seeing any results.How can we help our child to improve his performance? - Seeking Improvement
Answer: Setting goals helps children to be successful in school. Too often, especially after a disappointing report card, parents will hear their children vow: "I'll work harder and do better in school. I'll buckle down and really study. I'll turn that C in English into a B." Good intentions, of course; good goals, no! Good goals are not Pollyanna wishes. They are goals that help children focus on a task and select and apply strategies to accomplish it. And when these goals are met, they greatly add to children's "I can do it" attitude toward school. Good goals will meet these three standards:
1. Good goals are specific. "Sitting down to study for 30 minutes every night at 5 p.m." is a good example of a specific goal that could be effective in improving grades, provided the time boundaries will be easy to follow. "Studying every night" is a too-general goal that doesn't spell out any specific task that needs to be performed.
2. Good goals are short-term goals. They can be achieved quickly and will result in higher motivation and better self-regulation than more distant, long-term goals. "Practicing the multiplication facts every night this week with my parents" is a goal that a child could realistically meet. Plus, the younger children are, the less meaning the future (next week, next month) has to them.
3. Good goals are moderately difficult. Of course, this assumes that children have the skills to accomplish them. Overly easy or impossible goals do not increase motivation.