MotivAction

Last registered on May 16, 2023
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Pre-Trial

Trial Information

General Information

Title
MotivAction
RCT ID
AEARCTR-0011316
Initial registration date
May 08, 2023

Initial registration date is when the trial was registered.

It corresponds to when the registration was submitted to the Registry to be reviewed for publication.

First published
May 16, 2023, 2:26 PM EDT

First published corresponds to when the trial was first made public on the Registry after being reviewed.

Locations

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Primary Investigator

Name
Laïla Souali
Affiliation
Université Paris Dauphine
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Other Primary Investigator(s)

PI Name
Elise Huillery
PI Affiliation
Ecole Normale Supérieure & Université Paris Dauphine - PSL
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PI Name
Yann Algan
PI Affiliation
HEC Paris
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Additional Trial Information

Status
On going
Start date
2020-11-01
End date
2024-12-31
Keywords
Education
Additional Keywords
growth mindset, formative assessment, cooperative learning, social inequality
JEL code(s)
Secondary IDs
Prior work
This trial does not extend or rely on any prior RCTs.
Abstract
The goal of this study is to estimate the impact of a training of teachers aimed at helping them adopt new pedagogical practices to develop high levels of self-confidence, self-efficacy, cooperation, and intrinsic motivation in young students. In France, such pedagogical training may be particularly useful as self-confidence and perceptions of one’s chance of success are among the lowest of OECD countries, while anxiety and fear of failure are among the highest (PISA 2012, 2015). According to TALIS 2013, only 58% of French teachers feel pedagogically well prepared for their profession, as compared to 89% on average in OECD countries.
This research project aims to fill this gap. It targets 1st grade (cours préparatoire) teachers in two French Académie (Versailles and Paris), with the goal of providing them with the most recent results in economics, psychology, sociology and cognitive sciences, as well as with practical information on the pedagogical practices that are effective for developing academic motivation based on socio-behavioural skills. The ultimate objective of the project is to increase students’ learning and academic outcomes for all students, while at the same time reducing social inequality at school.
External Link(s)

Registration Citation

Citation
Algan, Yann, Elise Huillery and Laïla Souali. 2023. "MotivAction." AEA RCT Registry. May 16. https://doi.org/10.1257/rct.11316-1.0
Sponsors & Partners

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Experimental Details

Interventions

Intervention(s)
Intervention Start Date
2021-09-13
Intervention End Date
2023-04-15

Primary Outcomes

Primary Outcomes (end points)
Our outcomes of interest derive from the following chain of causality: changes in teachers’ perceptions will produce changes in teachers’ practices, which will produce increases in children’ self-efficacy, self-confidence, self-esteem, internal locus of control, and growth mindset, which will produce increases in children’ effort and motivation in schoolwork, which will produce increases in learning and academic performance.
Primary Outcomes (explanation)

Secondary Outcomes

Secondary Outcomes (end points)
Secondary Outcomes (explanation)

Experimental Design

Experimental Design
The evaluation protocol is based on a randomized controlled trial with 5 arms. It includes 190 teachers willing to participate in the training and who anticipated to have a class in Grade 1 during the 2021-2022 school year for the first wave, and 250 teachers who anticipated to have a class in Grade 1 during the 2022-2023 school year for the second wave. Randomization takes place at the teacher level, and all teachers must come from different schools in order to avoid spillover effects across experimental groups. The 440 teachers are randomized in 5 groups:
1. module 1 (growth mindset)
2. module 2 (formative assessment)
3. module 3 (cooperative learning)
4. modules 1+2+3
5. the control group

We recruited 440 teachers because we expected an attrition of about 40 teachers, reaching a total of 400 teachers in the final sample. We have two different samples, depending on the type of date (described in the next section):
- one with the administrative data (8000 students expected)
- one with the survey data (3600 students expected)
Given the parameters of the experimental design, the minimum detectable effect size is 0.17 standard deviation of the outcome for the first sample and 0.20 standard deviation of the outcome for the second sample.


Experimental Design Details
Not available
Randomization Method
The randomization is done using STATA.
Randomization Unit
The randomization is done at the teacher level. We stratified on baseline teachers' caracteristics. We constructed strata with five teachers with smallest distance in baseline caracteristics and then we randomized within each stratum the five teachers into the five experimental arms.
Was the treatment clustered?
Yes

Experiment Characteristics

Sample size: planned number of clusters
The treatment is clustered at the class-level, so we have 440 clusters.
Sample size: planned number of observations
392 teachers, taking into account attrition. About 3600 students for the questionnaire data. About 7000 students for the administrative data.
Sample size (or number of clusters) by treatment arms
80 teachers/class in every treatment arm. About 720 students for the questionnaire data in every treatment arm. About 1400 students for the administrative data in every treatment arm.
Minimum detectable effect size for main outcomes (accounting for sample design and clustering)
We have two different samples, depending on the type of data: - one with the administrative data (7000 students expected) - one with the survey data (3600 students expected) Given the parameters of the experimental design, the minimum detectable effect size is 0.17 standard deviation of the outcome for the first sample and 0.20 standard deviation of the outcome for the second sample.
Supporting Documents and Materials
IRB

Institutional Review Boards (IRBs)

IRB Name
IRB – Ethics Committee JPAL EUROPE (PSE)
IRB Approval Date
2020-11-17
IRB Approval Number
2020-020
IRB Name
IRB – Ethics Committee JPAL EUROPE (PSE)
IRB Approval Date
2022-05-02
IRB Approval Number
2020-020
IRB Name
IRB – Ethics Committee JPAL EUROPE (PSE)
IRB Approval Date
2023-04-25
IRB Approval Number
2020-020
Analysis Plan

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