“Get a high test score” or “become better than I was yesterday”—which is the better learning goal?
Both can be useful, but they serve different purposes. Scores and outside evaluations help learners locate themselves. Personal-growth goals provide a centre for daily action.
The point is not to eliminate evaluation. It is to avoid making evaluation the sole source of meaning in learning.
Goals differ in what we use as the standard
Achievement goal theory looks at what a learner counts as success. One influential distinction is between mastery goals—understanding, developing skill, and improving—and performance goals—earning a result or demonstrating ability.
Dweck and Leggett argued that aiming to develop ability and aiming to demonstrate ability can produce different responses when difficulty appears (Dweck & Leggett, 1988). This is not a simple claim that competition is bad. The purpose behind a goal can shape how learners interpret mistakes and challenge.
Approaching success or avoiding failure
Elliot and McGregor combined mastery and performance standards with approach—moving towards a desirable result—and avoidance—trying to prevent an undesirable one (Elliot & McGregor, 2001).
- Mastery-approach: I want to read more smoothly than yesterday.
- Mastery-avoidance: I do not want to lose a skill I previously had.
- Performance-approach: I want to receive a high evaluation.
- Performance-avoidance: I do not want others to think I am less capable.
Avoidance goals deserve particular care. When the central purpose is not to fail or look foolish, avoiding the challenge itself can begin to feel safer.
Not “I must read without mistakes,”
but “I will read one sentence more smoothly than yesterday.”
External evaluation can be useful
Tests, qualifications, and feedback from a teacher or Coach help learners check their position from the outside. Goals such as passing an examination or raising a pronunciation rating are concrete. They create deadlines and focus effort.
A meta-analysis found that approach goals—whether mastery or performance focused—were generally linked positively to attainment, while avoidance goals were not (Van Yperen, Blaga, & Postmes, 2014).
Still, one disappointing score does not prove that no growth occurred. Test fit, health, and anxiety can all affect a single result.
Place personal growth at the centre of daily learning
Progress in oral reading is not visible only in a score. Using one's voice for eight minutes, pausing fewer times, attending more closely to meaning, or returning after a missed day can all represent growth.
Goals that learners can influence directly make it possible to recognise success during the process—even on a day with no external evaluation.
A practical answer: two layers of goals
ONDEN proposes treating evaluation and growth not as rivals, but as two layers with different roles.
- Outer goal: reach a target test score in three months; measure words per minute at the end of the month
- Inner goal: read for eight minutes today; read one sentence in meaningful chunks
The outer goal provides direction and milestones. The inner goal creates today's next step. Results then become information for choosing the next practice—not a verdict on the learner.
Coach evaluation should reveal growth, not rank people
ONDEN Coaches observe pronunciation, rhythm, fluency, confidence, and other qualities. The purpose, however, is not to assign learners a fixed rank.
Specific observations—“Your voice was stronger today” or “You reached the end of the sentence without stopping”—can turn an outside perspective into evidence of personal growth.
Use another person's eyes not only to compare,
but to notice growth you cannot yet see yourself.
Questions ONDEN is investigating
- Do personal-growth goals support continuity in oral reading?
- How does specific Coach feedback relate to self-efficacy?
- How do learners respond when numerical evaluation and encouragement are combined?
- Can evaluation anxiety change within a relationship where it feels safe to read?
In summary
Learners do not have to choose between external evaluation and personal growth. For daily learning, however, personal growth makes a stronger centre.
- Use evaluation to locate yourself and mark milestones.
- Build daily goals around small actions you can influence.
- Shift from “looking capable” back to “growing one step.”
- Let another person help you see growth that is hard to notice alone.
Evaluation is the map.
Growth is the step you take today.
References
- Dweck, C. S., & Leggett, E. L. (1988). A social-cognitive approach to motivation and personality. Psychological Review, 95(2), 256–273.
- Elliot, A. J., & McGregor, H. A. (2001). A 2 × 2 achievement goal framework. Journal of Personality and Social Psychology, 80(3), 501–519.
- Van Yperen, N. W., Blaga, M., & Postmes, T. (2014). A meta-analysis of self-reported achievement goals and nonself-report performance across three achievement domains. PLOS ONE, 9(4), e93594.