Personal and professional goal setting has been considered as an essential factor for motivation and overall wellbeing (Locke & Latham; Brunstein & Joachim). In this project, two groups of five pre-service teachers from Spain were trained to create their goal maps and to coach peers during a three months cooperation experience in primary schools in Ghana. The teachers were asked to develop a general goal map for the whole experience and a weekly map for more specific goals and challenges. Each weekly goal map was used as the primary resource for a coaching conversation with a peer, and the pre-service teachers were asked to write and post a 300 words reflection received by their supervisor, who eventually could also provide feedback.
The pattern and strength of the initial findings suggested that goal setting and regular coaching conversations facilitated the maintenance of adaptive motivation patterns when participants adopted mastery goals. Compared to previous groups of pre-service teachers taking part in the same experience in former cohorts, an increase of self-awareness and subjective well-being was observed. The process, and some of the result, as well as the main findings of a qualitative research study, will be shared in this presentation.