Goal Directed Behavior

The affective program is designed to help the child learn to set goals for himself. A goal is a standard of performance in both a quantitative and qualitative way. The goal is a self-imposed number of work units determined by past performance. It is important to note that the goal is not something a child sets as a high target, which can only be achieved when the child is performing at his very peak. It is a goal based upon average past performance. The goal helps to define a standard of consistency. The goal, in part, provides the child with a standard for measuring and experiencing his own success. A child feels successful and a sense of accomplishment when he achieves his goal.

The criteria for setting one's goal in the model is based upon past performance. The child is aware of the amount of work that he normally does over a period of time, i.e. a lab. That awareness of the amount of work completed becomes the basis upon which he sets his goal. The goal is not an idealized target; it is solid, real, and tangible.

It should be stated over and over and over again: the goal is the child's not a figure imposed upon him by a teacher. The child should feel the goal is something he is taking responsibility for; and at bottom, the only way that this will happen is if the goal is something that he truly determines for himself.

The teacher is the guide and trainer. Her job is to teach the child about his work performance and to teach him about being goal directed. She tracks the work as he completes it and makes him aware of it in Five-Minute-Hour Time.

When a young student enters the program, he has little or no basis for setting a realistic goal for himself much less achieving the goal. The goal-setting continuum enables each child over time to be able to set a realistic work goal for himself and achieve the goal consistently. By the end of the program, the goal has become a personal commitment in which each student invests sufficient energy to achieve.