Start each learning cycle with a goal you can name
Write the one thing you are trying to learn before you seek information, so the rest of the cycle has a target to measure against.
Why it works
Lectica describes the virtuous cycle of learning as a repeated cycle that begins with goal setting, then information seeking, application and reflection. Its web page also says every learning cycle, however small, should end with goal setting, so the goal is both the start and the end of each pass. Naming the goal gives the later steps a standard to judge the outcome against; that is the developers’ reasoning, not a tested mechanism.
How to do it
- Before you read, watch, or ask about something new, write one sentence that starts with “I want to be able to…”.
- Check that the sentence names something you could show you can do, not just something you would like to know about.
- At the end of the day, write the goal for the next pass before you close your notes.
Evidence
Lectica’s web page sets goal setting as the first step of its VCoL model. Its 2011 paper describes a goal-action-feedback loop that starts the same way. Both are the developers’ own descriptions, and neither reports a test of this exercise. (anecdotal)
The sources treat goal setting as a design principle of the model. No comparison of goal-first learning against other approaches appears in them.
Sources
- Lectica, Inc. Virtuous cycles of learning (VCoL) & the +7 skills. Web page, undated, read 2026-10-14.
- Dawson, T. L., & Stein, Z. (2011). Virtuous cycles of learning: Redesigning testing during the digital revolution. Lectica, Inc. Originally presented at the International School on Mind, Brain, and Education, Erice, Italy.
Common mistake
Writing a goal as a topic (“learn about leadership”) instead of something you could check you have learned.
Practice this with IX Coach
More practices for The Lectical Scale and the Virtuous Cycle of Learning
- Pick a next step that is a stretch you can reach
Choose a next learning goal that is a stretch you can reach, not one beyond reach. Lectica asks for goals that are “just right” but does not define that phrase; “stretch” is this page’s reading of it.
- Run one micro-VCoL on something that happened today
Take one ordinary event from your day and move it through goal, information, application and reflection in a few minutes of attention.
- Seek the information that could change your mind
Before settling on a view, look for the evidence most likely to contradict it, and weigh it fairly.
- Rehearse new knowledge in a low-stakes trial
Try a new idea first in a hypothetical or low-stakes version, so a misstep costs little and the result becomes information.
- Notice your defensiveness before you act on feedback
When feedback stings, name the defensive reaction first, then sort out what the feedback actually says.
- Pick one thinking bias to catch this week
Choose one thinking bias, such as attribution bias, and watch for it in your own reasoning for a week before choosing another.
- Ask how a developmental level was scored before you act on it
Before you act on a developmental score, ask what descriptions it was matched against and how consistently scorers agree on it.
Related concepts
- Zone of Proximal Development: Learning at Your Real Edge
Targeting the gap between what you can do alone and what you can do with guidance
- Desirable Difficulties: When Harder Means Better Learning
The difficulties worth keeping — and the ones to remove
- Torbert’s Seven Action Logics of Leadership
Seven ways leaders make sense of pressure, how common each is, and how to work with your own
- Ego Development Theory: What It Is and How It Is Measured
The frame you make meaning through, how researchers measure it, and how to work with it without ranking anyone
- Vertical Development Practices: How Adults Grow, Not Just Add Skills
Heat, colliding perspectives, and sense-making — and what the research can and cannot promise
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