When Goal-Setting Forges Ahead but Stops Short
This paper reports the results of an at-scale randomized controlled trial among 18,000 secondary students in Zanzibar (Tanzania) to examine the effects of personal best goal-setting on student outcomes. The paper also tests the impact of combining...
| Main Authors: | , , , , , |
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| Format: | Working Paper |
| Language: | English |
| Published: |
World Bank, Washington, DC
2020
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| Subjects: | |
| Online Access: | http://documents.worldbank.org/curated/en/658171600701734813/When-Goal-Setting-Forges-Ahead-but-Stops-Short http://hdl.handle.net/10986/34504 |
| Summary: | This paper reports the results of an
at-scale randomized controlled trial among 18,000 secondary
students in Zanzibar (Tanzania) to examine the effects of
personal best goal-setting on student outcomes. The paper
also tests the impact of combining goal setting with
non-financial rewards conditional on students meeting the
goals they set. The results suggest that goal-setting has a
significant, positive impact on students' time use,
study effort, and self-discipline. However, there are no
significant impacts on test scores. This is partially
because nearly two-thirds of the students do not set
realistic goals. The paper finds that the effects on time
use, study effort, and discipline are weaker when goal
setting is combined with nonfinancial rewards. This suggests
that tying goal setting to extrinsic incentives could weaken
its impact. The results show stronger impacts for female
students and from students from weaker socioeconomic
backgrounds. These results demonstrate that goal setting can
have positive impacts on student outcomes, especially for
the relatively disadvantaged. However, for maximizing the
impacts, goal setting may need to be combined with guidance
on setting realistic goals, and extrinsic rewards tied to
goals may need to be avoided. |
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