LEAD 6001 Module 5 Professional Goals and Program Plan Example

Three Goals, Three Horizons and Twelve If-Then Plans: Professional Goals and a Doctoral Program Plan for a Clinical Placement Coordinator

Student Name

American College of Education

LEAD6001: Introduction to Advanced Studies

Module 5 Assignment

Instructor Name

November 9, 2026

Introduction

Over the past four modules I described myself as a practitioner beginning to become a scholar, measured my time, writing and statistics history, searched and judged research on dedicated education units and compared the models of inquiry I might use to study them. This last paper converts all of that into a plan. It sets three professional goals on three time horizons, explains how goal-setting research shaped them, converts the obstacles from my self-assessment into specific if-then plans and maps the doctoral program onto a calendar with checkpoints.

What the Research Says About Goals

Reviewing some 35 years of their own and others' studies, Locke and Latham (2002) concluded that workers handed a demanding and precise target outdo those told merely to try their best, because a target focuses attention, raises effort, sustains persistence and pushes people to look for better methods. The effect depends on commitment and on regular word about progress, and when a task is new and complicated, a goal of mastering the skill should come before a target for output. A doctorate is a complex task, so my first-year goal is about learning, not output.

Goals alone often fail at the moment of action. Gollwitzer (1999) described implementation intentions, plans in the form "if situation Y arises, then I will do X," and reviewed evidence that such plans help people act on their goals by handing control of the first step to a cue in the environment. I will use that form for every obstacle I named in Module 2.

Goal 1: The First Year

Twelve months from now I will be able to read a quantitative and a qualitative nursing education study and explain in writing what each can and cannot claim. This is a learning goal, in keeping with the finding that complex tasks call for learning before performance targets (Locke & Latham, 2002). Evidence of progress will be concrete: a reading log of at least 40 studies by next October, each with a three-sentence note on design and limits, and two papers returned by instructors without the comment that I described rather than argued.

Goal 2: Candidacy

By the time I complete the concept paper course, I will have an approved concept paper on clinical placement models and student reasoning, with a partner hospital's letter of support for access. This goal follows directly from the gap identified in Module 3 and the design options weighed in Module 4. It is difficult but specific, and its key dependency, a willing hospital partner, is something I can begin working on now through the nurse executives I already meet each semester.

Goal 3: After the Doctorate

Within two years of graduating I will lead a placement redesign at my program that is evaluated with data and written up for publication or presentation, so that what I learn reaches other programs. This goal expresses the scholar-practitioner identity from Module 1: improving my own practice and adding to what others can use. It is the least certain of the three, but naming it now gives the earlier goals a purpose.

Turning Obstacles Into If-Then Plans

Module 2 named three challenges: time, academic writing and statistics, along with the feeling of not belonging. Each now has if-then plans. If it is Tuesday or Thursday at 5:30 a.m., then I will open the current reading before checking email. If a hospital calls about a placement during a study block, then I will text that I will call back at 8:00 unless a student is at risk that day. If I finish a paragraph, then I will add a sentence stating what its evidence means. If a draft is due in a week, then I will send it to the writing center that day. If I meet a statistical term I do not know, then I will add it to a glossary and look it up before moving on. If I read a classmate's post and feel I do not belong, then I will reread my feedback file before replying. Twelve such plans in all are written on a card on my desk; these six are the ones I expect to use most.

The Program on a Calendar

My program plan follows the sequence the university provides: leadership and nursing education courses alongside the research courses in statistics, methods and design, then the concept paper, methodology, literature review and proposal courses, followed by data analysis, interpretation and the defense. I have placed each course on a calendar with my work peaks marked, the first two weeks of each semester when placements start and the last week when clinical evaluations are due, and I have noted which courses coincide with those weeks. Two of the heavier research courses fall during placement start-up, and for those terms I have asked my dean in advance for a lighter committee load. I will review the calendar with my advisor each spring.

Staying Connected to the Program

Golde (2005), studying attrition in four doctoral departments, found that students who left were often those whose expectations did not match the program and who were not drawn into its community. An online doctorate makes isolation easy. My plan therefore includes two commitments that are not about coursework: I will join one student writing group each term, and I will attend the program's virtual sessions even when they are optional. These cost a few hours a month and address the risk that the research says matters most.

What I Will Stop Doing

A plan that only adds commitments will fail, because my week has no empty hours. Three things will stop. I will step down from the hospital partnership newsletter, which takes about two hours a month and which a newer staff member has offered to edit. I will stop answering placement emails after 8:00 p.m. except on the two evenings before a semester starts, and I have told the hospital educators so. And I will stop attending the monthly regional placement consortium in person, joining by video instead, which saves a three-hour round trip. Together these return roughly fourteen hours a month, about the time the first-year reading goal requires. Writing them down matters because each is something I enjoy or feel responsible for, and without a decision made in advance I would drift back into all three.

Checkpoints

The plan has four checkpoints. At the end of this term I will check whether I kept the morning study blocks at least three weeks in four. After the first research course I will review my reading log and statistics glossary. Before the concept paper course I will confirm the hospital partner. Each spring I will compare progress against the calendar with my advisor and revise. A plan that is never checked is only a hope, and Locke and Latham (2002) found that goals without feedback lose much of their effect.

Conclusion

This course began with a question about who I am becoming and ends with a plan for getting there. The goals are specific and staged, the obstacles have if-then answers and the program is mapped against the realities of my job. The plan will change, but it gives me a way to notice when it needs to and a reason, written down in my own words, for keeping going when it does.

References

Golde, C. M. (2005). The role of the department and discipline in doctoral student attrition: Lessons from four departments. The Journal of Higher Education, 76(6), 669-700. https://doi.org/10.1080/00221546.2005.11772304

Gollwitzer, P. M. (1999). Implementation intentions: Strong effects of simple plans. American Psychologist, 54(7), 493-503. https://doi.org/10.1037/0003-066X.54.7.493

Locke, E. A., & Latham, G. P. (2002). Building a practically useful theory of goal setting and task motivation: A 35-year odyssey. American Psychologist, 57(9), 705-717. https://doi.org/10.1037/0003-066X.57.9.705