Set the Goal First

The strategy, as published

Exactly as it appears on the card

Part of Forethought & Planning in 06 Metacognition & Self-Regulation, where it sits alongside its neighbouring strategies, the infographic and the thinking for the whole area.

Why you might use it

The problem it may help with

A vague aim gives a pupil nothing to steer by. "Do your best on question three" cannot be monitored against, which is why Zimmerman puts a specific, proximal goal at the very start of the self-regulation cycle: learners look ahead before they act.

Asking pupils to state what a good answer to this question looks like, before they start writing it, turns the aim into something they can check their work against while the work is still happening.

What it might look like

One version of it, in a classroom

Before a history essay, pupils jot down three things a strong answer to this exact question would contain. The class compares suggestions, agrees a shared version, and it stays on screen while they write. A pupil who pauses mid-paragraph now has something concrete to pause against.

Try it

A way to begin

Before your next extended answer, ask "what would a good answer to this include?" and take suggestions before anyone writes a word. Two minutes, no preparation.

What to notice

Reading what happens

• Whether the goals pupils state are specific, or just the task restated. "Write a good essay" is the vague aim wearing a costume.
• Whether anyone refers back to the goal mid-task. A goal set and then ignored has not yet entered the cycle.
• Whether the stated goal changes what gets written.

Things to think about

Before and while you use it

• Pupils new to this will produce woolly criteria at first. That is a reason to model the move, not to abandon it.
• The long-term aim is pupils who set the goal without being asked. The prompt is scaffolding, and scaffolding is for fading.

Related strategies

Where this connects

• 🤝 Build Success Criteria Together Ask students what excellent looks like before they begin. Their language, not yours, becomes the standard. Criteria they articulate themselves land far more deeply than criteria handed to them. 02 Formative Assessment · Clarify Learning Intentions
• 📄 Exemplars Before Rubrics Show work at different standards before students start their own. Students spot quality in someone else's work more readily than in their own. A rubric tells students what quality is; an exemplar shows them. 02 Formative Assessment · Clarify Learning Intentions
• 🔍 Analyse the Task First Zimmerman: strong learners break a task into its demands before starting. Ask students what this question is really asking and which prior topics it draws on before they answer. 06 Metacognition & Self-Regulation · Forethought & Planning
• 📏 Judge Against a Standard Zimmerman: self-judgement needs a reference, not a hunch. Give students the mark scheme or an exemplar to compare their work against, so evaluation is anchored to a real standard. 06 Metacognition & Self-Regulation · Self-Reflection & Evaluation
• 🎯 Feed Up, Feed Back, Feed Forward Every comment should answer three questions: where am I going, how am I doing, what next? Most feedback answers only the second. Check yours covers all three before you hand it back. 03 Feedback · What Feedback Is

Inclusive practice

The lens this connects with

Through the inclusive practice lens, this is one of the approaches that may reduce barriers around:

• Independence and self regulation

The wider thinking

Where the evidence sits

Goal-setting sits in the forethought phase of Zimmerman's self-regulation cycle; the looking ahead is what makes the later monitoring and self-judgement possible. The card’s attribution stands as published: Zimmerman.

The fuller picture, sources included, is in further reading and evidence for Metacognition & Self-Regulation.