REPORT

Researching Teaching and Learning

Table of Contents
Assignment 2: Report..................................................................................................................................1
Critical Summary.....................................................................................................................................1
Background Research..........................................................................................................................1
Methodology used for data collection.................................................................................................2
Research findings and limitations........................................................................................................2
Recommendations for teaching practices, lesson activity and Justification............................................3
Recommendations...............................................................................................................................3
Lesson Activity.....................................................................................................................................4
Justification..........................................................................................................................................5
References...................................................................................................................................................7

Word Count - 1991

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Assignment 2: Report

The use of Personal Best (PB) goals for students can improve on the academic life, and also the
social life, and this report is focused on teachers who set students up with PB goals. The article ‘Personal
best goals and academic and social functioning: A Longitudinal perspective’ [ CITATION Lie12 \l 1033 ],
looks into the effects on the students who use personal best goals to either match or exceeds their own
previous best. Using PB goals is an excellent way to improve on the self, and can be applied to everyone
in a classroom setting. This report will identify how the use of PB goals can be applied to all subjects, as
well as focusing on the key learning area of ‘History’. This report will then look into how the authors of
the article made their recommendations for classroom practice, using background research on the
subject, their methods of collecting the data, and their findings. After this is done, the report will go into
depth of a learning activity unit chosen from the NSW Education Standards Authority [CITATION
NES181 \l 1033 ], highlighting the strengths and weaknesses of the activity in relation to the article, and
revisions made to the chosen learning activity based on the recommendations of the article.

Critical Summary
Background Research
The educational issue that is being addressed in this article is Personal Best Goals, and how
setting up these PB goals sustain the students’ academic, and social development throughout the school
year [CITATION Lie12 \p 222 \l 1033 ]. The investigation looks into the three forms that PB goals has on
students’ academic and social functioning. Firstly, the article inspects how PB goals to an extent improve
the students’ deep learning, academic flow, academic buoyancy, teacher relationships, and peer
cooperation, which have not been previously investigated in relation to PB goals [CITATION Lie12 \p
224 \l 1033 ]. Second, the article examines the relationship between PB goals, and academic and social
functioning between two points of time within the school year[CITATION Lie12 \p 227 \l 1033 ]. Lastly, it
examines PB goals after controlling for the students’ age, language background, and academic ability as
covariates to the model [CITATION Lie12 \p 228 \l 1033 ]. More recently, there are studies conducted on
PB goal structure, and the connection to the students’ own PB goals and achievements in relation to
engagement [ CITATION Mar16 \l 1033 ]. There also have been previous studies done on PB goals and
academic consequences, but were individually tested and did not take into account the relevant
variables, such as the students’ socio-demographic background [CITATION Mar10 \t \l 1033 ]. As well,

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studies have also been conducted to test how PB goal settings is associated with achievement growths
in a students’ academic lives [CITATION Mar161 \t \l 1033 ]. The aim of this article was to examine the
roles of PB goals across two points of time in a school, which will then try to prove the positive effects
on the students overall academic and social interactions.

Methodology used for data collection

The research article conducted its case studies research using a qualitative approach based on
grounded theory [CITATION Sha18 \p 95 \l 1033 ]. The sample comprised of 254 students from an
independent girls’ high school in New South Wales, Australia, with 5 students’ results removed due to
missing values between the two periods [CITATION Lie12 \p 225 \l 1033 ].The survey was administered
during normal class times by the classroom teacher, from years 7 to 9, with up to 41% of students
surveyed being in year 9, 31% in year 8, and lastly 28% in year 7. The survey identified the demographic
information of the students (i.e., age, language background), the key variables of interest (i.e., PB goals,
deep learning, flow, buoyancy, teacher relationships, student cooperation), and achievements
[CITATION Lie12 \p 225 \l 1033 ]. These were measured using a psychometric scale, from 1 which was
indicated as strongly disagree, and to 7 which was strongly agree. As mentioned in the title of the article,
the study was designed around longitudinal research [CITATION Ker16 \p 57 \l 1033 ], and the data was
collected to understand the relationship of the variables between these two set times and its changes
over an extended period. Each of the variables that was previously discussed were measured using
scales corresponding to the variables [CITATION Lie12 \p 225 \l 1033 ].

Research findings and limitations

The articles findings indicated a strong correlation between PB goals and academic and social
outcomes from the two points of time, which are labelled as Time 1 and Time 2. At both points of time,
“PB goals were positively correlated with deep learning, academic flow, and teacher relationship
[CITATION Lie12 \p 226 \l 1033 ]. While this showed that setting these PB goals improved the students in
these areas, academic buoyancy and student cooperation were higher at the Time 1 period, compared
to the latter [CITATION Lie12 \p 228 \l 1033 ]. Additionally, when comparing the English-speaking
students to the non-English speaking students, non-English speaking students achieved higher in test
performance between Time 1 and Time 2 [CITATION Lie12 \p 228 \l 1033 ]. However, non-English
speaking students were lower in Time 1 period for the variables of academic buoyancy, academic flow,
and positive teacher relationships [CITATION Lie12 \p 227 \l 1033 ]. Age negatively predicted student’s
inclination to work with peers in Time 1, however it positively predicted the students’ buoyancy and

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deep learning at Time 2 [CITATION Lie12 \p 227 \l 1033 ]. This indicates that setting aside the effects of
age, language background, and academic ability, students’ PB goals was beneficial to them as it had
“positive effects on their adoption of deep learning, experience of academic flow, buoyancy in academic
life, positive relationships with teachers, and favorable attitudes toward peer cooperation” [CITATION
Lie12 \p 227 \l 1033 ].

The limitations that were addressed in the article referred to the sample size being small (N =
249). Second, it composed only of girls in a high school, rather than both sexes. Finally, the study only
encompassed three year groups instead of addressing the full span of high-school years [CITATION Lie12
\p 229 \l 1033 ].

Recommendations for teaching practices, lesson activity and Justification.

Recommendations
The article has made recommendations for implementing PB goals in the classroom setting.
What was suggested can be applied to all key learning areas, making it a versatile tool for educators.
They recommended that teachers introduce the idea of PB goals to students, then asking the students
to cooperate by completing a PB assessment sheet for each school subject in which the students record
their previous best performance for the subject, a ‘next’ performance goal in which they try to either
maintain or improve on their PB, and lastly the steps needed to reach that goal [CITATION Lie12 \p
229 \l 1033 ]. This process of identifying where they are at presently, where they want to be at, and how
to get there, lets the students discover their own way to achieve their goals and it recognizes the
student’s own unique potential. The recommendations will be considered when we modify the sample
History lesson taken from the NSW education standards authority syllabus.

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Lesson Activity
Figure A

Figure B

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The lesson activity that was selected and modified originated from the Stage 4 sample unit from
the syllabus provided by NESA (see Figure A). The topic is focused on the life of Genghis Khan and the
Mongol empire, with the initial weeks focused on the geographical features, as well as the Mongol
lifestyle [ CITATION NES181 \l 1033 ].

Justification
The updated lesson activity (see Figure B) adopts the recommendations made previously by the
article, while being implemented within the first week of study. The first modification done was the
implementation of the PB goal activity from the article to the students. This includes creating a word
document, labelling the main title “Personal best goals”, with three subsequent titles named “Previous
best”, “Next Performance goal”, “Steps need to reach this goal”, to which the students are to fill in
[ CITATION Lie12 \l 1033 ]. Combining ICT skills and management, alongside the activity ensures that
students understand the concept of PB goals and how to set it up, as well as being engaging.

The second modification done to the learning activity dealt with engagement early on. The
purpose of this was to establish this concept of having PB goals to the students early on, while being
engaging. Studies have suggested also that students from non-English speaking backgrounds have a
higher achievement level when they take into effect PB goals and engagement [ CITATION Mar16 \l 1033
]. Adding this into effect, students in the classroom can come from a diverse range of different cultures,
so the need to engage all students becomes a priority when dealing with this context, as well the
necessity to start this activity early on. As well, setting up these PB goals ensures academic achievement
gains [CITATION Mar161 \t \l 1033 ].

A strength of this activity is that it is versatile, which easily has the capability to be adopted into
each key learning area. However, it does not relate specifically to the subject of ‘History’, it does relate
to any subject or context that requires one to achieve a goal. As well, it accomplishes its goal of
increasing engagement levels early on, while providing the students a sense of individuality, as each
person competes with themselves rather than others, like goal-orientated approaches [CITATION
Lie12 \p 224 \l 1033 ].

The research article on Personal Best goals for students improves on the overall academic, and
social interactions. Using a qualitative approach, the article shows the relationship between PB goals,
and social and academic functioning between the two points of time, as well as examining the constants
that are affecting the students. While the research was limited by the fact that it was conducted in an

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all-girl high school, it presented remarkable findings on the subject of PB goals in relation to social and
academic functioning. Implementing their recommendation for practice in the lesson activity, and its use
early on provides the opportunity for the students to evaluate themselves and reflect on their own
work/study ethic, and considers ways of improvement.

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References
Kervin, L., Vialle, W., Howard, S., Herrington, J., & Okely, T. (2016). Research for Educators (2nd ed.).
Australia: Cengage Learning Australia.

Liem, G. A., Ginns, P., Martin, A. J., Stone, B., & Harrett, M. (2012). Personal Best Goals and Academic
and Social Functioning: A Longitudinal Perspective. Learning and Instruction, 22, 222-230.
doi:10.1016/j.learninstruc.2011.11.003

Martin, A. J., & Elliot, A. J. (2016, January). The role of personal best (PB) goal setting in students'
academic achievement gains. Learning and Individual Differences, 45, 222-227.

Martin, A. J., & Liem, G. A. (2010). Academic personal bests (PBs), engagement, and achievement: A
cross-lagged panel analysis. Learning and Individual Differences, 20(3), 265-270.

Martin, J. A., Collie, R. J., Mok, M. M., & McInerney, D. M. (2016, March). Personal best (PB) goal
structure, individual PB goals, engagement, and achievement: A study of Chinese-and English-
speaking background students in Australian schools. British Journal of Educational Psychology,
86(1), 75-91. doi:10.1111/bjep.1209

NESA. (2018). Modern History NSW Education Standard. Retrieved from New South Wales Education
Standards Authority: https://syllabus.nesa.nsw.edu.au/support-materials/sample-units/

Shank, G., Pringle, J., & Brown, L. (2018). Understanding Education Research: A Guide to Critical Reading
(2nd ed.). New York, New York, United States of America: Routledge.

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