Many possible frameworks could guide development of such an inventory. For example, a framework could emphasize a single goal area, for example, goals related to intellectual growth, social and personal growth, or vocational growth. An appropriate inventory could be based, as well, on theories of intellectual development such as those established by Kolb, Perry or Bloom. New developments in social science can help to guide development of a comprehensive course-specific students goals inventory capable of illuminating the multidimensional goal patterns students bring to college and classroom. A comprehensive model of student goals promises considerably more explanatory power than previous simpler goal models, and presents an extensive complex set of possibilities for research and classroom improvement.
Faculty can use students course-level goals to improve teaching.
At the simplest and most descriptive level, goal information can help an instructor understand the diversity and intensity of student effort in a particular class. In a more elaborate way, through the process now frequently referred to as classroom research, instructors can use goal information to discern how their goals for a particular class relate to those of their students. This can help them design classes that employ teaching approaches appropriate for their students levels of interest and expectation. At still a more complex level, collecting and analyzing student goals can enhance formal assessment processes. Since course-level goals are measured with regard to a specific academic discipline or classroom setting, using them in the assessment process may involve statistically adjusting outcome expectations in that setting to account for goals of entering students.