1. Take Action: Making Goals Happen
James Martin - University of Oklahoma, Zarrow Center

2. Agenda Goal Attainment: Its role in SD and Transition
Goal Attainment Concepts
Take Action Lessons
Take Action Research
Middle School Study
Implications

3. Kohler’s Taxonomy for Transition Programming
Family Involvement
Student-Focused Planning
Program Structures
Student Development
Taxonomy implements the Transition Perspective
a BROAD approach to “transition planning”
Developed by the field
Organizes the many practices we talk about in a way that makes sense to them
The model is applied rather than theoretical -- extends Will’s and Halpern’s models
We’re using in planning, implementation, and evaluation
Interagency Collaboration

4. Seven Transition Steps
Involve student in IEP Planning Process
Student completes a three-part transition assessment process.
Student writes own transition summary of educational performance
Student develops course of study
Student becomes involved in attaining postschool linkages
Students attain own IEP and personal goals
Students develop own summary of performance

5. Step 6
Teach students to attain their own Goals - both IEP and personal
Use Take Action to teach goal attainment

6. Goal Attainment Is The Most Important Self-Determination Component
(Wehmeyer, 1994)

7. Self-Determination Self-Determined People Will
Make choices and set goals based upon an understanding of their interests, skills, and limits
Express their goals to help build support
Establish a plan to attain their goal
Evaluate their plan
Adjust their goal or plan
Martin & Huber Marshall, 1993

8. Self-Determination Constructs
• Self-awareness
• Self-advocacy
• Self-efficacy
• Decision-making
• Independent performance
• Self-evaluation
• Adjustment

9. Dream Its fun to dream, but how do dreams become reality?
GOAL ATTAINMENT

10. Goal Attainment
From an awareness of personal needs individuals will choose goals, then doggedly pursue them (Martin & Huber Marshall, 1993)
SD is a person’s ability to define and achieve goals from a base of knowing and valuing oneself (Field & Hoffman, 1994, 1995)
SD is the repeated use of skills necessary to act on the environment in order to attain goals that satisfy self-defined needs and interests (Mithaug, 1996)

11. Goal Attainment Facts
Students ability to problem solve, which includes goal attainment, predicts students enrollment into postsecondary education (Halpern, Yavanoff, Doren, & Benz, 1995)
Students with learning and other disabilities lack goal attainment skills (Fuchs, Fuchs, Karns, Hamlett, Katzaroff, & Dutka, 1997)
Students with high incidence disabilities differ significantly from nondisabled peers in their ability to choose and attain goals (Mithaug, Campeau, & Wolman, 2003)

12. Autonomy & Competence
The more autonomous (self-determined) a person believes their behavior to be the greater the personal satisfaction and enjoyment from engaging in that behavior (Deci & Ryan, 2000)
Feelings of competence (self-efficacy) shape a person’s willingness to actively engage and persist in different behaviors (Bandura, 1997)
Diminished perception of competence leads to lower motivation and a decrease in willingness to pursue goals and persist in their attainment. This limits overall educational growth (Bandura, 1997).

13. Self-Management
Take Action teaches students a self-management process to reach goals and aspirations. This involves breaking down goal attainment process into many teachable component parts, including:
Proximal (short-term) goal framed as action
Identifies standards to determine when goal reached
Identifies strategies, schedules, source of motivation
Self-evaluation of performance to standard
Determines major factors associated with progress or lack of progress

14. Result: Learning Goal Orientation
High levels of task engagement
Increased willingness to exert effort to attain desired outcomes
Tasks that must be completed to attain the outcomes become interesting and have value

15. ChoiceMaker SD Lesson Packages

16. Take Action Available From
Sopris West Publishers
4093 Specialty Place
Longmont, CO 80504
Phone: (303)
Fax: (888)

17. Take Action: An Overview
Teaches students to a process to attain their own goals.
Seven lessons
Seven to 10 days, 50 minutes a day
Student will take info and infuse into his or her IEP meeting & into academic coursework
Designed for students with high incidence disabilities or for general ed students. One study modified Take Action for use by students with moderate mental retardation.

18. Take Action Major Steps: Plan
Break goals down into doable steps
Establish standards
Determine how to get feedback
Determine motivation to attain goal
Determine strategies
Determine support
Schedule
Express belief that goal can be attained

19. Take Action Major Steps: Action
Record or report performance
Perform to standard
Obtain feedback on performance
Motivate self to complete tasks
Use strategies
Obtain support as needed
Follow schedule

20. Take Action Major Steps: Evaluate
Determine if goal attained
Compare performance to standard
Evaluate usefulness of feedback
Evaluate if motivation helped prompt my achievement
Evaluate effectiveness of strategies
Evaluate usefulness of support
Evaluate usefulness of schedule
Evaluate my belief

21. Take Action Major Steps: Adjust
Adjust goal if needed
Adjust or repeat standards
Adjust or repeat feedback method
Adjust or repeat motivation
Adjust or repeat strategies
Adjust or repeat support
Adjust or repeat schedule
Adjust belief statement

22. Introduction Introduces the Take Action process
Lesson
Introduction
Introduces the Take Action process
Plan
Act
Evaluate
Adjust
Goals: long and short-term
Break long-term goals into short-term goals

23. Write The Steps in the Correct Order from 1 to 4.

25. Introducing Plan Parts
Lesson
Introducing Plan Parts
Watch a 10-minute video that introduces the Take Action Process and overviews the six important steps to make a plan
Lesson 2 Teaches
- Standard - Strategy
- Motivation - Schedule

26. Each Plan Part Answers a Question
Standard: what you will be satisfied with
Motivation: why you want to meet your standard and accomplish your goal
Strategy: how I accomplish my standard to meet my goal
Schedule: when will I do my strategy or work on my goal

27. Each Plan Part has an Associated Question
What are they?

28. Same Goal - Different Standards
What are the standards for the runner, weight lifter, and dog walker?

29. More Plan Parts Review first four plan parts Teach Support
Lesson
More Plan Parts
Review first four plan parts
Teach Support
Teach Feedback
Case Study
Review Quiz

30. Support Support is help provided by other people or things
The support question is “What Help Do I Need?”
What support did the car driver need in the video?
What support does the runner or weight lifter need?

31. Feedback Feedback: information you get on your performance
What feedback did the driver get in the video?
Trace exercise
Sources of feedback

35. • Review long & short term goals • Puzzle Quiz
Lesson
Critiquing Plans
• Review long & short term goals
• Puzzle Quiz
• Take Action Critique Tool
• Sample Plans

36. Match word to question

37. Sample Plan

38. Writing a Plan Students develop a plan to accomplish a goal
Lesson
Writing a Plan
Students develop a plan to accomplish a goal
Complete cumulative quiz
Critique Michelle’s Plan
Breakdown “get good grades in class” goal
Complete plan for “get good grades in class” goal
Complete plan aloud in class

39. Critique Michelle Pass’ Plan

40. Evaluating & Adjusting Plans
Lesson
Evaluating & Adjusting Plans
Review and complete 3 example case studies from plan through evaluate and adjust
Apply evaluation and adjustment concepts to own plan

41. First Review Michelle Pass’ Plan to Get Good Grade

43. Use Take Action Process
Lesson
Use Take Action Process
Apply Take Action Process to
IEP Goals
Personal Goals
Employment Goals
School Goals

44. Student Take Action Sample

45. Student Take Action Sample

46. Modified Lessons
Four lessons teach a simplified version of the Take Action Process
Choose a goal that can be accomplished in a day or two
Plan consists of three parts: strategy, schedule, support
Evaluate and adjust within one or two days rather than a week
Many of the same teaching strategies are used

47. Modified Plan Example Form

48. German, et al., 2000 Study
Students with 6 high school students with moderate mental retardation used the modified version of Take Action to learn to attain their daily IEP goals.

49. Walden (2002)
College Students with LD acquired and generalized goal attainment skills using Take Action, but without continued use their skills decreased over time.
The Take Action process must be used to be remembered!

50. Middle School Study

51. Research Questions
Does Take Action increase students’ AIR Self-Determination and ChoiceMaker Taking Action assessment scores?
Does Take Action increase the number of long-term goals set and the number of goals met?

52. Students Students in four 8th grade middle school English classes
101 students completed the study:
Number in General Ed: 81
Number in Gifted Ed: 14
Number with an IEP: 4
Number with 504 plan: 2

53. Setting Middle School in a medium-sized Southwestern city
Two teachers completed ChoiceMaker Assessment
One teacher taught the ChoiceMaker lessons

54. Dependent Measures
Score from the AIR Self-Determination Assessment (Student Version)
Score from the ChoiceMaker Self-Determination Assessment (Taking Action Section)
Number of long-term goals set
Number of long-term goals met

55. Design Combination Quantitative and Qualitative Design
Repeated measure multiple baseline
Pre/post AIR and ChoiceMaker Assessments
Completed 5 times over 9 months of the academic year at the end of each quarter
Long-term goal set and met collected four times at the end of each quarter

56. Design Described
ChoiceMaker Take Action Instruction

57. Instructional Procedures
Baseline
Completed AIR and ChoiceMaker Assessments first two days
Students completed goal sheets
Students identified long-term goals for first 9-weeks
Intervention
During the first quarter two classes taught and practiced Take Action over five weeks
During second quarter remaining two classes received Take Action instruction
During the third quarter classes worked on Take Action goal attainment process twice a month
During the fourth quarter classes moved to once a month

58. Collecting Data and Scoring
The teacher and researcher independently scored the Take Action goal attainment forms to assess number of long-term goals set and met. They resolved any differences.
Sample of the AIR and ChoiceMaker Assessment results independently scored for accuracy, with discrepancies corrected.

59. Results We conducted data analyses through: - Whole sample
- Four classes
- Students in General, Special, or
Gifted Ed
- Male and Female

60. Results
A one-way within-subject ANOVA was conducted with the factor being quarters of the school year and the dependent variable being the:
- Students’ AIR Self-Determination Assessment
scores
- Teacher’s ChoiceMaker Assessment Taking
Action Section scores
- Number of long-term goals set
- Number of long-term goals met

61. Whole sample
The repeated measure ANOVAs indicated significant effects for:
the students’ AIR Self-Determination Assessment results, Wilks’  = .78, F(4, 86) = 6.20, p < .01, multivariate 2 = .22
the first teacher’s Taking Action ChoiceMaker Assessment, Wilks’  = .21, F(4, 42) = 39.75, p < .01, multivariate 2 = .79
NOTE: For 2, values of .01, .06, .14 are, by convention,
interpreted as small, medium, and large effect sizes, respectively.

62. Whole Sample
The repeated measure ANOVAs also indicated significant effects for:
the second teacher’s ChoiceMaker Assessment, Wilks’  = .27, F(4, 36) = 24.15, p < .01, multivariate 2 = .73;
the number of long-term goals set, Wilks’  = .30, F(3, 84) = 66.95, p < .01, multivariate 2 = .71;
and the number of long-term goals met, Wilks’  = .30, F(3, 84) = 66.95, p < .01, multivariate 2 = .71.

63. Four Classes
- The repeated measure ANOVAs indicated significant effects for students’ AIR Self-Determination Assessment results for three classes out of four, Wilk’s  for the three classes varies from .43 to .64, p-value varies from less than .01 to .04, and multivariate 2 varies from .36 to .58.

64. Four Classes
- On the teacher’s ChoiceMaker Assessment Taking Action Section ANOVAs indicated significant effects for seven assessments out of eight, Wilk’s  for the seven assessments varies from .02 to .29, p-value varies from less than .01 to .04, and multivariate 2 varies from .72 to .98.

65. Four Classes
- The number of long-term goals set’s ANOVAs indicated high significant effects for the four classes, Wilk’s  for the four classes varies from .15 to .22, all p-values were less than .01, and multivariate 2 varies from .78 to .85.

66. Four Classes
- The ANOVAs for the number of long-term goals met also indicated high significant effects for the four classes, Wilk’s  for the four classes varies from .20 to .30, all p-values were less than .01, and multivariate 2 varies from .70 to .80.

67. General Education Program
The repeated measure ANOVAs indicated significant effects for:
the students’ AIR Self-Determination results, Wilks’  = .65, F(4, 64) = 8.52, p < .01, multivariate 2 = .35;
the first teacher’s ChoiceMaker Taking Action Section, Wilks’  = .18, F(4, 30) = 33.47, p < .01, multivariate 2 = .82;

68. General Education Program
The repeated measure ANOVAs also indicated significant effects for:
the second teacher’s ChoiceMaker Taking Action Section, Wilks’  = .19, F(4, 27) = 29.52, p < .01, multivariate 2 = .81;
the number of long-term goals set, Wilks’  = .22, F(3, 61) = 71.73, p < .01, multivariate 2 = .78;
and the number of long-term goals met, Wilks’  = .29, F(3, 61) = 49.57, p < .01, multivariate 2 = .7.

69. Gifted and Talent Program
The repeated measure ANOVAs indicated significant effects for:
the student’s AIR Self-Determination Assessment pre-intervention and fourth quarter, Wilks’  = .70, F(1, 13) = 5.52, p = .04, multivariate 2 = .30;
the first teacher’s Taking Action ChoiceMaker, Wilks’  = .15, F(3, 4) = 7.45, p = .04, multivariate 2 = .85;

70. Gifted and Talent Program
The repeated measure ANOVAs also indicated significant effects for:
the number of long-term goals set, Wilks’  = .24, F(3, 11) = 11.50, p < .01, multivariate 2 = .76;
and the number of long-term goals met, Wilks’  = .22, F(3, 11) = 13.27, p < .01, multivariate 2 = .78.

73. Special Education Program
The repeated measure ANOVAs indicated significant effect for number of long-term goals met during the first to fourth quarters, Wilks’  = .07, F(1, 2) = 27.00, p = .04, multivariate 2 = .93.

76. Effect of Instruction
We conducted a one-way analysis of variance to evaluate the relationship between Take Action instruction and students’ AIR self-Determination Assessment scores, The ANOVAs indicated no significant differences between the intervention group (group 2) and the control group (group 1) on the pre-intervention AIR assessment scores, F(1, 107) = 0.23, p = .63, 2 < .01.

77. Average Score of Students’ AIR Self-Determination Assessment
ChoiceMaker Take Action Instruction
Note. Group 1 = class A and B; Group 2 = class C and D; Pre = pre-intervention; Q = quarter.

78. Effect of Instruction
During the first quarter, teacher taught only group 2 the Take Action lessons. At the end of the first quarter, ANOVAs indicated statistically significant differences on the AIR assessment scores for the favor of the intervention group (group 2), F(1, 106) = 4.34, p = .04, 2 = .04.

79. Growth Percentage Comparisons
We defined the mean growth percentage of a repeated measure as the difference between the highest and the lowest mean (of the repeated measure) multiplied by hundred and divided by the lowest mean.
We used this growth percentage to make comparisons between different students’ programs and between the two genders.

80. Growth Percentage by Program

81. Growth Percentage and Gender

82. Gender Differences
The ANOVAs indicated significant differences for females over males with p < .01 for the five students’ AIR Self-Determination Assessments and nine out of 10 teacher’s ChoiceMaker Assessment Taking Action Section.
ANOVAs indicated no significant differences between males and females on the measures of the number of long-term goals set and the number of long-term goals met.

83. Student Survey
Eighty-two students answered three open-ended questions about this academic year-long Take Action study:
“What did you like about Take Action process”
“What did you NOT like about the Take Action process”
“What changes would you suggest to make it better”

84. “What did you like about Take Action process” Yielded Six Major Themes
Help in becoming more organized
Enable focus on tasks
Motivate
Set priorities
Remember assignments
Help in planning and accomplishing goals

85. “What did you NOT like about the Take Action process” Yielded Four Themes
Difficulties in remembering goals
Too tedious, time consuming, and boring
Too repetitive
Complicated

86. “What changes would you suggest to make it better” Yielded Four Themes
Make it more simple
Add a reminder system to help remember goals
Raise the period of time for short-term goals
Make the process more interest

87. Implications?

88. Questions