Identifying goals for students’ learning is fundamental for skillful teaching that supports students’ growth. This is because the design of lessons, whether from instructional materials or independently, depends on articulating what students are to learn. For some subject areas, such as mathematics, reading, writing, science, and social studies, standards are articulated by professional organizations and by states. These provide guidance for the process of setting learning goals. In other areas, such as physical education, schools or districts may specify learning targets. And in still other areas, such as developing organizational skills or communicating across difference, teachers may identify them on their own.
To plan and enact instructional activities and classroom discourse to support students’ learning, teachers must consider carefully what students know and can do. They set high expectations for their students and support their engagement in learning. Because over-helping students can actually reduce opportunities to learn as well as communicate a lack of confidence in students’ capability, teachers exercise critical awareness of these risks and make careful judgments about the amount and kind of support that a student needs. In some cases, students thrive from having to puzzle about a problem or a task, and in others, such experiences are merely frustrating and discouraging. Teachers are watchful to monitor that activities are focusing on the learning goal and that appropriate supports are provided.