Goal Setting Skills in Teachers' Professional Development

The article deals with the cyclical action research aimed at improving the strategy of organising the process of the development of student teachers' goal setting skills. The aim of the research was to find out how to help students create compelling and SMART goals. By setting goals at the beginning of the semester and tracking progress toward those goals, student teachers could focus on improving a few specific, high-impact skills rather than trying to improve everything at once. The goals were regularly adjusted by discussing them with a critical peer and setting deadlines and reflecting on this process in course feedback. The reflections reveal that goal setting in the teacher's profession is an important component of a teacher's development, it helps master discrete skills to impact their overall performance, and in-turn, student achievement. The feedback received on the applied strategy also suggests recommendations on the implementation process to assist teacher educators.