It is undeniable that goal attainment has brought a lot of success to the fast growing development ofhuman evolution : The world has witnessed the first man, Neil Armstrong to step onto the moon on July20th, 1969, and this is the result of great effort and long-term strategy, thanks to goal setting which wasguided 8 years ago ( SPACE.com Staff, May 25, 2011) Goal achievement does not only affect theworld but it is also an essential part to pursue one`s dream. This word expression is no longer unfamiliarfor students as it is put into pedagogy and practical education worldwide. Setting goals help people intheir daily lives to step by step reaching to the star and attain best result in school and in work. In thisessay, benefits, drawbacks of self motivation in studying will be discussed and a number of solutionswill be given.2.
1. Benefits”Goal setting is the process of establishing an outcome (a goal) to serve as the aim of one`s actions” (Marzano, Pickering, & Pollock, 2001, p93). In a analysis of Spanish elementary,the quality of students homework was based on a process : academic motivation comes toapproaching the homework, which later aquires time management and finally leads toacademic attainment.;setting goal pdf;This has shown that goal setting helps the kids to havemotivation in homework, as well as completing a full task. Before students can reach success,they need a direction so that they can know what to accomplish. Such as a 9 grade for the midterm English exam, or being an excellent student in the first year of college,… these are allacademic goals that persuade a child to move to his desk and start to learn his lessonpassionately and concentratively. Setting a goal will help a student find interest in his studying,and he will temp to engage in his academic learning.
Of greater concern, high motivated students tend to increase their persistence . There are twomain ways in which students tackle their school work: perfunctory and serious approach(Marton and Saljo, 1976 ) It seems that students who attach to low engagement will probablybypass difficult challenges in their work, and just simply finish their task as quickly as possible tocomplete their charge as they lack enthusiasm in learning. Those students can accomplish theirstudying just to satisfy their parents and tearchers, not to learn for themselves . On the otherhand, hard-working students put more effort and focus on their studying. According to Cialdini(2009), if a person commit to do something, most likely he/she will keep that commitment.
Ifany distractions interrupt his/her studying, the student with goals setting can ignore it and payattention to the work. They comprehense more and relate lessons into background knowledgeand practicality (Entwistle, 2009; Rosario et al., 2010b). Learning only happens when a personachieves deep understanding about something, and setting- goal at the beginning of studyingprocess can both help children to become strong-willing to overcome difficulties and findstrategy to overwhelm them (Rosario et al., 2013b).
As a result, students who are motivated byoutlook performances will not have as good outcome as children who are interested in theirstudying and put learning goals on the top ( Valle et al., 2009).Thirdly, academic goal can help students to succeed. It does not effect only on student`s gradesbut also the quality of learning process. They have more self-commitment, creativity and theytake more risk to accomplish their target. Goals, in general, give people the opportunity tocreate good organization, time management, priority, competence, and motivation (Shah &Kruglanski, 2008).
Moreover, students with high motivation are likely to search for feedback,which means that they are willing to learn from mistake to improve their skills and do betternext time (Hattie & Timperly, 2007).Last but not the least, students who are highly motivated in studying usually have optimisticattitude and positive feelings, such as interest, joy and pride (Kreibig, Gendolla, & Scherer,2010). A good direction of goal setting can help the students become self-confident and reducetheir stress. As every goal they have achieved encourages them to keep on track and inspirethem to discover their strength and desire. The more goals they attain, the more challengingone they want to reach to. Naturally, students will find what they are looking for and have agood orientation in the future, like what school they want to enter or what they want toaccomplish. ( Dorit Sasson, 2018).
Also, goal setting gives people the sense of freedom as it isbased on voluntary action, not by the force of anyone. They take their responsibility in theiraction and are eager to learn. In other words, the art of academic goal indirectly helps peopleto become more mature.2.2.
Drawbacks of setting wrong goalsWhat is a wrong goal? A wrong goal deprives from out- look performance, which has been mentioned tobe perfunctory and shallow. This type of studying is not for the purpose of learning, but for fulfilingone`s duty without interest. In other words, they are under pressure of outside factors such as parents,teachers, social requirement and judgement. A misleading goal attainment not only affects on astudent`s academic results, but also on his/her emotions and mental health.Indeed, a person who is lack of self control and freedom will probaby suffer from stress and live anunmeaningful life. That being dragged by the fast modern pace of life and work, without knowing whatis the true goal of one`self, is dreadful and terrifying. Students who are put a great amount of presssureand expectation usually have great fear of failure and become self-esteem if they fail.
First, a student engaged in false academic goal achievement can avoid difficult challenge due to fear offailure. They usually lack motivation, organization,time management, and take hesitation to seek forhelp and endure anxiety (Elliot & Church, 1997; Elliot & Harackiewicz, 1996; Elliot &McGregor, 1999; Elliot, McGregor, & Gable, 1999; Middleton & Midgley, 1997; Ryan, Pintrich,& Midgley, 2001; Skaalvik, 1997). If high motivated students are likely to have self- compasion, low-motivated students might criticize themselves and feel shameful for their shortage in abilities (Turner,Husman, & Schallert, 2002 . Moreover, students who have out- look performance goal are not ascompetetent as self-goal setting students.
(Elliot & Church, 1997; Middleton & Midgley, 1997)..Many people have been opposed to the self-esteem program in various educating systems in terms ofimproving academic results and students` attitude (Damon, 1995; Finn, 1990; Hewitt, 1998; McMillan,Singh, & Simonetta, 1994; Seligman, 1995) However, this studying environment is full of prejudiceand tough competence among students. If a child cannot fulfil everything perfectly, he/she can bescolded by their parents and teachers, or likewise, the child can be isolated by their friends. Abreakdown in psychology is likely to happen when they make mistakes and become embarrased in frontof their school mates. Wrong goal set by tearchers and parents as well as the students themselves cancreate heavy burden on the students `shoulders, leading to stressful and abhorrent study.
Goodexamples of this matter can be stated in most Asia countries with high exaltation in certificates anddegrees: Hong Kong, China, Japan, Korea and India have reported numerous surveys about mentalproblems, suicide commitment and fright of examinations < Suen and Yu, 2006> UK was reported that70 percent of 6020 students were self-harming and want to suicide due to exams and academicperformance , accourding to Global Education Magazine < 2010>.In general, a goal should be set in a right way and for the pursuit of happiness. The right academic goalachievement has been used in such misleading way
