This document discusses personal best (PB) goals in education. It provides context on goal theories over time, situated in organizational and educational psychology. PB goals are defined as articulating a target that matches or exceeds one's previous best. The document outlines studies that tested PB goals in relation to academic and social outcomes for students. The results showed PB goals were positively associated with deep learning, academic flow, and academic buoyancy. Recent research continues exploring the role of PB goals in student motivation, engagement, and achievement.

1. Personal Best Goals

2. Agenda
 Context
 Experiments (incl. 2 quizzes ;) )
 Goal theories in practice

3. What’s a ‘goal’?
‘An internal representation of desired states.’
(Austin & Vancouver, 1988)
Outcomes, events, processesRange = [Biological set points,
complex cognitive depiction]

4. 1990 2002 20062001 20152012
year
2011
Locke – Goal-setting (GS) theory
Elliot - Achievement goal orientation
Martin - Personal best (PB) goal
A Timeline

5. Goal theories prior to PB goals
Pintrich (2000,
2002) - motivation
driven goal-setting
& Self-regulated
learning (SRL)
Schunk (2002) -
Goal-setting and
self-efficacy
Situated in Organizational psychology.
Task performance focused;
Emphasize specific & difficult goals.
Situated in Psychology
Competence focused,
Emphasize task-based & self-based goals

6. Testing PB Goals in Education
1. Specific
2. Challenging
3. Self-referenced
4. Self-improvement based

7. Testing PB Goals in Education (cont’d)
PB
Goals
Self-
efficacy
Intrinsic
motivation
Achievement
goal
Flow
(Csikszentmih
alyi, 1990)
Task-specific goals
situation-specific goals
(Elliot & Sheldon, 1997)

8. Testing PB Goals in Education (cont’d)
Sample survey questions on ‘Specific goals’

9. Testing PB Goals in Education (cont’d)
Adopted from (Martin, 2006), p811.

10. Testing PB Goals in Education (cont’d)
Martin, A.J., 2006, p814.
First order factors
Higher-order factor

11. Testing PB Goals in Education (cont’d)
Zone 4 Zone 1
Zone 3 Zone 2
Figure 2, Martin, A.J. 2006, p815

12. A proposed model & a key message

13. So what’s PB Goal? (1st quiz)
It ‘articulates a target performance standard that
matches or exceeds one’s previous best.’ (Liem et
al., 2012)
Situated in Organizational
psychology.
Task performance focused;
Emphasized specific & difficult
goals.
Situated in psychology
Competence focused,
Emphasized task-based & self-
based goals.
Situated in Education psychology,
Performance & self-paced
progress focused,
Emphasized ‘self’

14. Testing PB goal in Academic & Social
Functioning
Academic: 3 hypothesis
PB Goals -> deep learning
PB Goals -> academic flow
PB Goals -> academic buoyancy
Social: 2 hypothesis
PB Goals -> student cooperation
PB Goals -> teacher relationship

15. The experiment design

16. The results
Table 1. descriptive of survey results (Liem et al., 2012), p226

17. The results (cont’d)
Table 3. (Liem et al., 2012), p226

18. The results (cont’d)
Figure 2. (Liem et al.,
2012), p228

19. Academic: 3 hypothesis
PB Goals -> deep learning
PB Goals -> academic flow
PB Goals -> academic buoyancy
Social: 2 hypothesis
PB Goals -> student cooperation
PB Goals -> teacher relationship
So what do the results tell us? (2nd quiz)
Further study – mediator: persistence
Further study – mediators: gender,
group activity,
assessment
Need to couch students how to set a PB goal!

20. Recent research on PB goals
The role of PB & achievement goals in students’ academic
motivation and engagement (Martin & Elliot, 2015)
The role of personal best (PB) goal setting in students'
academic achievement gains (Martin & Elliot, 2016)

21. Elliot’s 3 by 2 achievement goal orientation
model
Fig. 1, Elliot, Murayama & Pekrun (2011), p635

22. Goal theories in practice

23. Locke’s goal-setting theory
Fig 4 (Locke & Latham, 2002), p714

24. What would a PB Goal tool look like?

25. Appendix:

26. Reference:
Liem, G., Ginns, P., Martin, A.J., Stone, B., & Herett, 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. (2006). Personal bests (PBs): A proposed multidimensional model and empirical analysis. British Journal of
Educational Psychology, 76, 803-825.
Schunk (1990) Goal Setting and Self-Efficacy During Self-Regulated Learning, Educational Psychologist, 25:1, 71-86,
DOI: 10.1207/s15326985ep2501_6
Elliot, A.J., Murayama K., & Pekrun R. (2011) A 3 X 2 Achievement Goal Model, Journal of Educational Psychology,
103 (3), 632–648
Pintrich, P.R. (2000) An Achievement Goal Theory Perspective on Issues in Motivation Terminology, Theory, and
Research, Contemporary Educational Psychology 25, 92–104. doi:10.1006/ceps.1999.1017
Martin, A.J. & Elliot, A.J. (2016) The role of personal best (PB) and dichotomous achievement goals in students’
academic motivation and engagement: a longitudinal investigation, Educational Psychology, 36:7, 1285-1302, DOI:
10.1080/01443410.2015.1093606
Martin, A.J. and Elliot, A.J. (2015) The role of personal best (PB) goal setting in students' academic achievement gains,
Learning and Individual Differences 45 (2016) 222–227
Locke, E. & Latham, G. Goal-setting theory. 1994.
Latham, S. G., & Locke, A. E. (2002). Building a practically useful theory of goal setting and task motivation. A 35-year
odyssey. The American Psychologist.