Take Action: Making Goals Happen

1. Take Action: Making Goals Happen James Martin - University of Oklahoma, Zarrow Center

2. Agenda • Goal Attainment: Its role in SD and Transition • Goal Attainment Concepts • Take Action Lessons • Take Action Research • Middle School Study • Implications

3. Kohler’s Taxonomy for Transition Programming Family Involvement Student-Focused Planning Program Structures Student Development Interagency Collaboration

4. Seven Transition Steps • Involve student in IEP Planning Process • Student completes a three-part transition assessment process. • Student writes own transition summary of educational performance • Student develops course of study • Student becomes involved in attaining postschool linkages • Students attain own IEP and personal goals • Students develop own summary of performance

5. Step 6 • Teach students to attain their own Goals - both IEP and personal • Use Take Action to teach goal attainment

6. Goal Attainment Is The Most Important Self-Determination Component (Wehmeyer, 1994)

7. Self-Determination Self-Determined People Will • Make choices and set goals based upon an understanding of their interests, skills, and limits • Express their goals to help build support • Establish a plan to attain their goal • Evaluate their plan • Adjust their goal or plan Martin & Huber Marshall, 1993

8. Self-Determination Constructs • Self-awareness • Self-advocacy • Self-efficacy • Decision-making • Independent performance • Self-evaluation • Adjustment

9. Dream Its fun to dream, but how do dreams become reality? GOAL ATTAINMENT

10. Goal Attainment • From an awareness of personal needs individuals will choose goals, then doggedly pursue them (Martin & Huber Marshall, 1993) • SD is a person’s ability to define and achieve goals from a base of knowing and valuing oneself (Field & Hoffman, 1994, 1995) • SD is the repeated use of skills necessary to act on the environment in order to attain goals that satisfy self-defined needs and interests (Mithaug, 1996)

11. Goal Attainment Facts • Students ability to problem solve, which includes goal attainment, predicts students enrollment into postsecondary education (Halpern, Yavanoff, Doren, & Benz, 1995) • Students with learning and other disabilities lack goal attainment skills (Fuchs, Fuchs, Karns, Hamlett, Katzaroff, & Dutka, 1997) • Students with high incidence disabilities differ significantly from nondisabled peers in their ability to choose and attain goals (Mithaug, Campeau, & Wolman, 2003)

12. Autonomy & Competence • The more autonomous (self-determined) a person believes their behavior to be the greater the personal satisfaction and enjoyment from engaging in that behavior (Deci & Ryan, 2000) • Feelings of competence (self-efficacy) shape a person’s willingness to actively engage and persist in different behaviors (Bandura, 1997) • Diminished perception of competence leads to lower motivation and a decrease in willingness to pursue goals and persist in their attainment. This limits overall educational growth (Bandura, 1997).

13. Self-Management • Take Action teaches students a self-management process to reach goals and aspirations. This involves breaking down goal attainment process into many teachable component parts, including: • Proximal (short-term) goal framed as action • Identifies standards to determine when goal reached • Identifies strategies, schedules, source of motivation • Self-evaluation of performance to standard • Determines major factors associated with progress or lack of progress

14. Result: Learning Goal Orientation • High levels of task engagement • Increased willingness to exert effort to attain desired outcomes • Tasks that must be completed to attain the outcomes become interesting and have value

15. ChoiceMaker SD Lesson Packages

16. Take Action: An Overview • Teaches students to a process to attain their own goals. • Seven lessons • Seven to 10 days, 50 minutes a day • Student will take info and infuse into his or her IEP meeting & into academic coursework • Designed for students with high incidence disabilities or for general ed students. One study modified Take Action for use by students with moderate mental retardation.

17. Take Action Major Steps: Plan • Break goals down into doable steps • Establish standards • Determine how to get feedback • Determine motivation to attain goal • Determine strategies • Determine support • Schedule • Express belief that goal can be attained

18. Take Action Major Steps: Action • Record or report performance • Perform to standard • Obtain feedback on performance • Motivate self to complete tasks • Use strategies • Obtain support as needed • Follow schedule

19. Take Action Major Steps: Evaluate • Determine if goal attained • Compare performance to standard • Evaluate usefulness of feedback • Evaluate if motivation helped prompt my achievement • Evaluate effectiveness of strategies • Evaluate usefulness of support • Evaluate usefulness of schedule • Evaluate my belief

20. Take Action Major Steps: Adjust • Adjust goal if needed • Adjust or repeat standards • Adjust or repeat feedback method • Adjust or repeat motivation • Adjust or repeat strategies • Adjust or repeat support • Adjust or repeat schedule • Adjust belief statement

21. Lesson Introduction • Introduces the Take Action process • Plan • Act • Evaluate • Adjust • Goals: long and short-term • Break long-term goals into short-term goals

22. Write The Steps in the Correct Order from 1 to 4.

24. Lesson Introducing Plan Parts Watch a 10-minute video that introduces the Take Action Process and overviews the six important steps to make a plan Lesson 2 Teaches - Standard - Strategy - Motivation - Schedule

25. Each Plan Part Answers a Question • Standard: what you will be satisfied with • Motivation: why you want to meet your standard and accomplish your goal • Strategy: how I accomplish my standard to meet my goal • Schedule: when will I do my strategy or work on my goal

26. Each Plan Part has an Associated Question What are they?

27. Same Goal - Different Standards What are the standards for the runner, weight lifter, and dog walker?

28. Lesson More Plan Parts • Review first four plan parts • Teach Support • Teach Feedback • Case Study • Review Quiz

29. Support • Support is help provided by other people or things • The support question is “What Help Do I Need?” • What support did the car driver need in the video? • What support does the runner or weight lifter need?

30. Feedback • Feedback: information you get on your performance • What feedback did the driver get in the video? • Trace exercise • Sources of feedback

34. Lesson Critiquing Plans • Review long & short term goals • Puzzle Quiz • Take Action Critique Tool • Sample Plans

35. Match word to question

36. Sample Plan

37. Lesson Writing a Plan • Students develop a plan to accomplish a goal • Complete cumulative quiz • Critique Michelle’s Plan • Breakdown “get good grades in class” goal • Complete plan for “get good grades in class” goal • Complete plan aloud in class

38. Critique Michelle Pass’ Plan

39. Lesson Evaluating & Adjusting Plans • Review and complete 3 example case studies from plan through evaluate and adjust • Apply evaluation and adjustment concepts to own plan

40. First Review Michelle Pass’ Plan to Get Good Grade

42. Lesson Use Take Action Process • Apply Take Action Process to • IEP Goals • Personal Goals • Employment Goals • School Goals

43. Student Take Action Sample

44. Student Take Action Sample

45. Modified Lessons • Four lessons teach a simplified version of the Take Action Process • Choose a goal that can be accomplished in a day or two • Plan consists of three parts: strategy, schedule, support • Evaluate and adjust within one or two days rather than a week • Many of the same teaching strategies are used

46. Modified Plan Example Form

47. German, et al., 2000 Study Students with 6 high school students with moderate mental retardation used the modified version of Take Action to learn to attain their daily IEP goals.

48. Walden (2002) • College Students with LD acquired and generalized goal attainment skills using Take Action, but without continued use their skills decreased over time. • The Take Action process must be used to be remembered!

49. Middle School Study

50. Research Questions • Does Take Action increase students’ AIR Self-Determination and ChoiceMaker Taking Action assessment scores? • Does Take Action increase the number of long-term goals set and the number of goals met?