Using SMART Goals in the 8th Grade Health Classroom to Increase Student Success in School

Abstract Goal setting is used in many areas of life, although students do not always see the importance of setting goals and revisiting them over time. Implementing SMART (S - Specific, M - Measurable A - Achievable, R - Realistic, T - Timely) goals in school settings can be beneficial. The goal of this research project was to see if students can be more successful in school if they are taught to write SMART and revisit them. All students enrolled in 8th grade health made an academic SMART goal that they revisited many times throughout the semester in order to measure whether or not they were more successful in school. Results showed that many students did not have parents that were worried about their grades. This contributed to many students not worrying about anything other than passing their classes with low grades. With each student building their own goal and revisiting the goal over the semester, students tended to be more successful in school. As goals were evaluated each week, students started to see the benefits of looking at goals over time instead of just setting a goal and hoping it happens. Overall, 64% of students felt that after six weeks of going back and looking at their goal they had found some success or thought that goal setting was of benefit to them