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Internship Learning Objectives, Goal Setting, and Your ePortfolio
Diane Ducat, Cooperative Education Department, LaGuardia Community College
Internship Learning Objectives, Goal Setting, and Your ePortfolio
Unit Objectives
1.To help you gain an understanding of effective goal-setting techniques, including creating action plans that will help you reach the goals you set
2.To introduce you to the core competencies and discipline-specific competencies used in internship evaluations
3.To guide you in setting internship learning objectives for your ePortfolio
4.To assist you in preparing medium-range and long-range goals for your ePortfolio
Introduction to Goal Setting and the ePortfolio Goal Section
Would you like a proven way to increase your personal, academic, and professional effectiveness? This unit explains how you can increase your chances for success by using goal setting. You’ll learn how to set “smart” goals. You’ll be introduced to the concept of a learning mindset that will orient you to creating multiple pathways to reach your desired goals. You’ll see how the internship is an ideal setting to practice how to set and reach important goals – goals that will aid your future academic and career success by strengthening important workplace competencies.
The ePortfolio contains only six key sections: welcome, about me, classes and projects, resume, links, and goals. Did you every wonder why “goals” are considered such an important part of your ePortfolio? Gary Latham, a Canadian psychologist, has spent decades studying goals. He and his colleagues’ research shows that having goals help you become a high achiever. For goal setting to work its “magic,” though, you’ll need to learn how to set goals and the kinds of action plans that will help you reach them. Begin by following two goal-setting principles: 1) Choose something you really want; and 2) Make sure your goal is both challenging and specific.
Choose Something You Really Want
Having a goal acts as a motivating force. Psychological experiments have shown that people make greater physical and/or cognitive effort when they have a goal in mind. Goals motivate people to use their knowledge as well as to learn new skills so they can reach their goals.
When you commit to a goal, you direct your attention toward goal-relevant activities and away from goal-irrelevant activities. For example, suppose your goal is to be a college graduate. If you see yourself in a cap and gown, crossing the stage at graduation, and shaking the President’s hand, you are more likely to spend time in the library. If you continually remind yourself that you really want to be on that stage at graduation (your goal), you are more likely to persist in studying. The most famous musicians, world-class chess players, and athletes at the top of their game confirm that the best in their field spend more time and effort pursuing their professional goals. For example, pianists who had a greater number of solo performances by age 20 had practiced 10,000 hours while those with fewer solos, practiced 5,000 hours.
Personal goals energize people. Their outcomes matter to them and they expend lots of energy, even risk their lives, to reach their goals. Take the mountain climbers whose goal is to climb Mt. Everest. One in ten dies trying to reach the top, but these mountaineers are willing to train for years and spend more than $65,000 for the chance to summit to the “roof of the world.” Your goals don’t have to be life threatening to be meaningful, but you do have to have some passion for reaching them,
Make Sure Your Goal is Challenging and Specific
The researchers have also shown that people with specific, difficult goals (often called “stretch” goals) perform better than people with easy or vague goals. The optimum amount of challenge, according to the research, is when there is a fifty-fifty chance of reaching your goal. The uncertainty about the outcome adds to the excitement of trying as well as to the feeling of satisfaction when the goal is achieved.
If the goal is too easy, it loses the motivating effect. There is neither satisfaction nor a feeling of achievement in reaching an easy goal, so it is soon neglected or forgotten. Children demonstrate this fact when they give up games and toys that were challenging to them at a younger age. When riding a tricycle becomes easy, they want to learn to ride a two-wheeler. The tricycle holds little interest and pleasure.
Vague goals are also ineffective. Avoid vague goals, such as “Do your best.” Such goals lead to lower performance than having a specific target in mind.
Goal Time Spans
David P. Campbell, a prominent psychologist, in his popular book, If You Don’t Know Where You’re Going, You’ll Probably End Up Somewhere Else, has provided a helpful way to think about goals. He categorizes goals by the approximate time span they cover. Goalsmay be categorized into micro-goals (one hour), mini-goals (one day), short-range goals (up to one year), mid-range goals (up to five years), and long-range goals (your ideal vision of your life).
Since internships are approximately three months, internship-learning objectives are short-range goals. Mid-range goals are focused on the next chapter in your life and include such goals as pursuing a bachelor’s degree or the next step in your career. Mid-range goals cover the next five years or so. Long-range goals describe the kind of lifestyle you want, including your ideal job, where you want to live, and any marriage and/or family plans.
Campbell notes that we have more control over goals that cover shorter time spans than goals that are longer term. If, for example, we set a micro-goal (the next hour) or a mini-goal (one day to one month) we can plan more precisely and adjust our planning to fit the circumstances we encounter. The micro-goal, spending an hour studying biology with no phone call interruptions, is easier to achieve than getting an “A” in biology (a three-month, short-range goal), or becoming a physician’s assistant (a five-year, mid-range goal), or working for a pediatrician in private practice (a long-range goal). Our planning for the next hour can be more precise and we can adjust the plan. We may realize that when we enter the library that it is too full of friends and temptations to take a break, so we find a study hall instead. With shorter time frames, we can adjust our plan to the circumstances we encounter.
Goal Stacking
If we stack our micro-goals (study for an hour, attend class today) over time, we move closer to our short-range goals (getting an “A” grade) which in turn leads toward our mid-range goal (physician assistant) and long-range goal of working with children in a pediatric practice.
Short-range Internship Goals
Now, let’s turn to how you can set important short-range goals for your internship – ones that will help you achieve your career dreams. You’ll also learn how to craft action plans that will help you reach your goals.
Learning Objectives and the Learning Mindset
You’ll notice that, in Coop, goals are called learning objectives. That’s because we emphasize that the most important part of an internship is experiential learning. Learning objectives specify the ways you want to grow professionally during the internship. You may choose to gain new skills, improve existing skills, or remove obstacles that could block your career success. Your learning objectives may focus on competencies that are not emphasized in the classroom, but are very important for success in the workplace, such as human relations skills and career management.
This section guides you through the process of setting two or three internship learning objectives. Some people begin the process of goal setting as if it were a Christmas wish list with a long list of items. That’s OK as a start to the goal-setting process, but if you generate a long list, narrow it down. The research shows that having a limited number of goals is more effective than having many goals. That is because you can devote your effort to making headway in one or two directions, but not ten or twenty directions all at once. So from your initial list, select two or three goals that mean something to you.
To set an internship-learning objective, you need to know what kinds of skills and knowledge are valued in the workplace. To help you, the LaGuardia faculty have identified five competency areas that are valued in your chosen career field. Take a moment to review Table 1, Competency Areas by Discipline. (See below.) You may observe striking similarities among the competencies across various majors.
Communication skills, professionalism, and information technology are necessary for success in any career field. Career development is also important because you need to learn how to take charge of your own career and commit to lifelong learning. For many majors in the Business and CIS areas, faculty shaped each of the five competency areas to reflect the distinct skills and knowledge associated with these particular programs.
TABLE 1 COMPETENCY AREAS BY DISCIPLINEAccounting / Business
(all options) / Computer
Information
Systems
(all options) / Paralegal / Travel &
Tourism / All Other Majors*
Communication
and
Interaction / Communication
and
Human Relations / Workplace Communication
and
Client Service Skills / Human Relations / Customer Service
and
Human Relations / Communication and
Human Relations
Workplace Expectations
and
Project Management / Workplace Expectations / Professionalism / Professionalism / Professionalism / Professionalism
Career Development
and
Lifelong Learning / Career Development
and
Lifelong Learning / Lifelong Learning Orientation / Career Development
and
Lifelong Learning / Career Development
and
Lifelong Learning / Career Development
and
Lifelong Learning
Information Technology / Information Technology / Foundation Skills in IT / Information Technology / Information Technology / Information Technology and
Information Literacy
Accounting
Knowledge / Business
Knowledge / Computer Specialty Specific Knowledge / Paralegal
Knowledge / Knowledge of the Travel,
Tourism, and Hospitality Industry / Knowledge of the Internship Setting and Field of Interest
*If you are in Fundamentals of Professional Advancement, but anticipate changing to any of the majors that follow, also use the “All Other Majors” competencies and assessments. These majors are Dietetic Technician; Emergency Medical Technician/Paramedic; Engineering Science; Human Services; Music Recording Technology; Nursing; Mortuary Science; Occupational Therapy Assistant; Physical Therapist Assistant; Teacher Education; Veterinary Technology. You should seek advisement about these majors and what courses are required as soon as possible.
Get SMART
The acronym SMART: Specific, Measured, Achievable, Relevant, and Time limited provides an excellent guide to creating an effective internship learning objective. The SMART acronym guides you step by step.
First, it is important to decide what areas will receive your attention. We’ve created a web-based form that you can use to conduct a professional competency self-assessment. This self-assessment will help you to identify specifically which skills and knowledge related to your major that you would like to target for improvement. Within each of the five competency areas, you’ll find over thirty specific competency items that can serve as internship learning objectives.
Second, we know that you will be measured on yourprogress toward your goal. Internship employers will fill out an internship evaluation form and assess your level of skill at the beginning and the end of your internship so that you can determine what progress you’ve made in reaching the goals you select. You will get measurable feedback. In addition, when you write the Final Evaluation Essay, you will have an opportunity to look back and reflect on your own progress. As you may recall, the employer evaluation form and your Final Evaluation Essay is 50% of your internship grade.
Third, the goals are achievable. Typically, these competencies have been set with faculty members in your major area. They identified targets that most students can reach with effort, skill, and knowledge.
Fourth, these competencies were identified by faculty as appropriate for your major. When you select a goal from these competencies, you can be sure your goal will be relevant to your academic and professional success.
Fifth, the time span for working on your goals is clear. Internships are roughly three months. During the semester, it’s a good idea to check with your internship site supervisor to obtain feedback regarding your progress toward meeting your goals, while the end of the internship is a good point to assess your progress and reevaluate your goals.
Web based Competency Self-Assessments for LaGuardia Programs
In the Forms section of the Coop Department web page, you’ll find a web based competency assessment for many LaGuardia programs. The self-assessment activity helps you find your goal targets.
We are still developing assessment forms for some majors, so you may have to use the “Other Majors” form. We created this “Other Majors” form by selecting items in five competency areas that are valued across all career fields.
If you are an evening student, you may be unsure about whether an internship is right for you. You can still obtain great value from engaging in the self-assessment activity. You can apply what you are learning about goals and goal setting techniques on your current job. As you learn more about the internship program, you may decide that an internship offers an excellent opportunity to advance your career.
Action Steps and Multiple Paths
Once goals are selected, many people believe they have completed the goal-setting process. I wish it were this easy, but it isn’t and this false belief typically results in disappointment. Although you have set a SMART goal, if you stop there, you have stopped too soon. You must identify the paths you will take to reach your goal. You don’t always know which paths are best, so a good strategy is to identify multiple paths to reach your goal. As you try different paths, you will discover which ones fit your learning style and the circumstances you encounter.
Reaching Your Goal: Goal Setting and the Learning Mindset
Most students recognize that to reach a goal, they must stay focused on the goal and work hard. They often call this will power. If they give up on a goal, they put it down to lack of will power or motivation. They don’t approach reaching the goal with a learning mindset. They often don’t understand that they may lack the knowledge and skills to reach the goal.
Perhaps you would like to set a time management goal because you recognize that better time management would help you become more successful. You miss deadlines, forget important tasks, and feel stressed out with all you have to do. To change this sorry state of affairs the best frame to take is a learning mindset. Using a learning mindset, your goal would be “I would like to discover five new ways to meet deadlines and be on time and try them out during the internship period.”
Phrasing your goal using a learning mindset allows you to discover which time management techniques fit your personal style. Your friend may decide to keep a daily calendar and to-do list and update it each day. You are more intrigued by a time management technique that you researched on the Internet that asked you to keep an hourly log of your activities for a week to discover your time-wasters. You keep the log (even though it’s a real pain) and discover you are watching too much TV late at night. You may decide to put yourself on a TV diet (I give myself permission to watch one show per day) and dedicate the rest of the time to meeting your deadlines. After trying various calendar options (daily, weekly, monthly), you may find that a monthly calendar with important deadlines in red works better for you than a daily calendar.
Without researching various time management techniques, trying some, and reflecting on those that fit your personal style, you wouldn’t have built any more knowledge or skill in time management. Your short-range goal, “meet deadlines” would have been just like so many New Year’s Resolutions, full of good intentions, but without an action plan that emphasized learning and discovery. You would never discover the reasons you miss deadlines (too much TV, no picture of multiple deadlines on a calendar). Worse, you might blame yourself for your failure to meet deadlines by assuming you lacked the will power to succeed. Will power alone is not enough. Most often we need additional knowledge and skills before we can be successful. When you describe your actions using a learning mindset, you open yourself to acquiring the knowledge and skills you need to reach your goal.
Use a Variety of Action Steps