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...

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Main Authors:	Islam, Asad, Kwon, Sungoh, Masood, Eema, Prakash, Nishith, Sabarwal, Shwetlena, Saraswat, Deepak
Format:	Working Paper
Language:	English
Published:	World Bank, Washington, DC 2020
Subjects:	EDUCATION RECOGNITION REWARDS STUDENT PERFORMANCE ZANZIBAR SECONDARY EDUCATION GENDER
Online Access:	http://documents.worldbank.org/curated/en/658171600701734813/When-Goal-Setting-Forges-Ahead-but-Stops-Short http://hdl.handle.net/10986/34504

id	okr-10986-34504
recordtype	oai_dc
spelling	okr-10986-345042022-09-20T00:11:42Z When Goal-Setting Forges Ahead but Stops Short Islam, Asad Kwon, Sungoh Masood, Eema Prakash, Nishith Sabarwal, Shwetlena Saraswat, Deepak EDUCATION RECOGNITION REWARDS STUDENT PERFORMANCE ZANZIBAR SECONDARY EDUCATION GENDER 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. 2020-09-24T18:50:36Z 2020-09-24T18:50:36Z 2020-09 Working Paper http://documents.worldbank.org/curated/en/658171600701734813/When-Goal-Setting-Forges-Ahead-but-Stops-Short http://hdl.handle.net/10986/34504 English Policy Research Working Paper;No. 9406 CC BY 3.0 IGO http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/3.0/igo World Bank World Bank, Washington, DC Publications & Research Publications & Research :: Policy Research Working Paper Africa Tanzania
repository_type	Digital Repository
institution_category	Foreign Institution
institution	Digital Repositories
building	World Bank Open Knowledge Repository
collection	World Bank
language	English
topic	EDUCATION RECOGNITION REWARDS STUDENT PERFORMANCE ZANZIBAR SECONDARY EDUCATION GENDER
spellingShingle	EDUCATION RECOGNITION REWARDS STUDENT PERFORMANCE ZANZIBAR SECONDARY EDUCATION GENDER Islam, Asad Kwon, Sungoh Masood, Eema Prakash, Nishith Sabarwal, Shwetlena Saraswat, Deepak When Goal-Setting Forges Ahead but Stops Short
geographic_facet	Africa Tanzania
relation	Policy Research Working Paper;No. 9406
description	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.
format	Working Paper
author	Islam, Asad Kwon, Sungoh Masood, Eema Prakash, Nishith Sabarwal, Shwetlena Saraswat, Deepak
author_facet	Islam, Asad Kwon, Sungoh Masood, Eema Prakash, Nishith Sabarwal, Shwetlena Saraswat, Deepak
author_sort	Islam, Asad
title	When Goal-Setting Forges Ahead but Stops Short
title_short	When Goal-Setting Forges Ahead but Stops Short
title_full	When Goal-Setting Forges Ahead but Stops Short
title_fullStr	When Goal-Setting Forges Ahead but Stops Short
title_full_unstemmed	When Goal-Setting Forges Ahead but Stops Short
title_sort	when goal-setting forges ahead but stops short
publisher	World Bank, Washington, DC
publishDate	2020
url	http://documents.worldbank.org/curated/en/658171600701734813/When-Goal-Setting-Forges-Ahead-but-Stops-Short http://hdl.handle.net/10986/34504
_version_	1764481042814599168

When Goal-Setting Forges Ahead but Stops Short

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