Goal-Setting and Work-Based Learning | Origin: EC153
This is a general discussion forum for the following learning topic:
Strengthening CTE Instruction with Clear Learning Goals --> Goal-Setting and Work-Based Learning
Post what you've learned about this topic and how you intend to apply it. Feel free to post questions and comments too.
What I learned from this module is that goal-setting is not just a classroom habit that happens to transfer, it is itself a work-based learning outcome I can design for directly, from the WBL placement through the job interview. The same UDL sequence applies to a placement as to a lesson: set clear goals with the student included, anticipate the barriers that decide who actually gets to participate, and design options so the experience is not limited to the students who already have transportation, dress, and self-advocacy handled. The interview piece sharpened this for me, because articulating goals with the STAR method is a teachable skill that lets a student convert a WBL experience into evidence an employer can read.
I lead work-based learning across the METT pathways, so the application is in how I frame WBL rather than in a single classroom. As my summer cohort builds scope and sequence maps, I intend to treat goal-setting, self-reflection, and interview articulation as named WBL competencies with their own checkpoints, not as soft extras layered on top of the technical standards. I also intend to run the barrier-anticipation questions with WBL coordinators and employers before placements begin, because the module is right that the students most likely to be left out of a WBL opportunity are the ones a clear, inclusive goal structure is meant to protect.
I really struggled with attendance in externships and I love the idea of goal setting to create intrinsic value versus extrinsic value in completing their externships well.
Setting goals and work-based learning go hand in hand with students gaining real world experience for the world of work. Goals in job interviews, on work assignments and work sites, and for long- and short-term career objectives can greatly help students carve and navigate a path for their individual careers that can be beneficial, fruitful and fulfilling for a life's worth of work.
One of the things I hope we can improve on next school year is to spend more time priming our students for the interview process, prepping them for having conversations with potential employers in the actual interviews. Coaching them, if you will, and also helping them to prepare their resumés so that the employers can have a full picture on work and education experience the students may already have.
CTE is such a great vehicle for high school students to obtain real world work experience while still in school, so by the time they graduate, they will have valuable work experience to make themselves that much more marketable. And with that experience, a clearer path for their careers will be established. But not without setting goals and having work-based learning in their wheelhouse, as these two elements are two of the crucial building blocks for the foundation to great careers
Clear goal settings can be beneficial during job interviews. I learned the STAR approach to explaining a challenging situation that I faced when asked to do so.
Comment on Randice Nelson's post: I agree Randice! How do you make that clear/obvious to learners? We would also love to know what your biggest takeaway was from this course. Thank you!
Comment on Robyn Bingham's post: Fantastic observation! Consider checking out the UDL 3.0 considerations on Goal Setting. We would also love to know how this course has impacted your approach to designing learning... are you doing anything differently or amplifying something you have already done?
Setting clear learning goals helps students present a compelling career vision and align their aspirations with job opportunities.
Setting learning goals will be able to help students not only in their CTE class but in their future job as well.
