Using Goals to Motivate Students: The role of gender, self-confidence, and self-control

Last registered on January 15, 2025

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Pre-Trial

Trial Information

General Information

Title

Using Goals to Motivate Students: The role of gender, self-confidence, and self-control

RCT ID

AEARCTR-0011737

Initial registration date

September 28, 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

October 04, 2023, 4:44 PM EDT

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

Last updated

January 15, 2025, 4:46 AM EST

Last updated is the most recent time when changes to the trial's registration were published.

Locations

Country

Region

Country

Region

Primary Investigator

Name

Sarah Rezaei

Affiliation

Utrecht University

Contact Primary Investigator

Other Primary Investigator(s)

PI Name

Hendrik Sonnabend

PI Affiliation

Hagen University

Contact Investigator

PI Name

Bastian Westbrock

PI Affiliation

Hamburg University

Contact Investigator

Additional Trial Information

Status

On going

Start date

2021-09-01

End date

2025-02-28

Keywords

Behavior, Education, Gender, Labor

Additional Keywords

self-set goals, financial incentives, higher education, self-control, self-confidence, gender

JEL code(s)

C93, I23

Secondary IDs

Prior work

This trial is based on or builds upon one or more prior RCTs.

Abstract

We examined the impact of self-set goals on students' academic efforts and performance in a classroom intervention conducted at two European universities. Students were randomly assigned to a control group and two treatment groups. In the treatment groups, participants set a performance goal for their final course exam, and in one treatment, they could earn a monetary reward if they achieved their goals. Students in the control group did not set any performance goals.

External Link(s)

Registration Citation

Citation

Rezaei, Sarah, Hendrik Sonnabend and Bastian Westbrock. 2025. "Using Goals to Motivate Students: The role of gender, self-confidence, and self-control." AEA RCT Registry. January 15. https://doi.org/10.1257/rct.11737-1.3

Sponsors & Partners

Experimental Details

Interventions

Intervention(s)

A randomized field experiment will be conducted at two universities in the Netherlands and Austria. First-year undergraduate students registered at Microeconomics and Mathematics are randomly assigned to a control and two treatment groups after the mid-term examinations. Participants in the treatment groups set a performance goal for their final course exam, and in one treatment, they could earn a monetary reward if they achieved their goals. Students in the control group did not set any performance goals after the midterm examination. Before the treatment and at the end of the course, we also measure students' effort levels and personality traits before and after the treatments.

Intervention (Hidden)

Intervention Start Date

2023-12-01

Intervention End Date

2025-02-28

Primary Outcomes

Primary Outcomes (end points)

Self-set goals' (incentivized and non-incentivized) impact on exam performances is moderated by students' gender and self-confidence. In particular, female students benefit from goal setting more than male students. Moreover, more confident students benefit more from the incentive treatment than less confident students.

Primary Outcomes (explanation)

Confidence is measured by a) one's own performance expectation at midterm exam, b) self-reported personality traits c) sociodemographic variables (gender + parental education)

Secondary Outcomes

Secondary Outcomes (end points)

Secondary Outcomes (explanation)

Experimental Design

This is a randomized field experiment where students were divided into three groups. Participants receive their treatments after the grades of the midterm examinations in the respective courses. The control group received no treatment, while students in the non-incentivized goal-setting group were asked to set their own performance goals for their final exams. The incentivized goal-setting treatment is identical to the non-incentivized one except that students have a chance at a financial reward if they achieve their goal in the endterm exam. The financial rewards are awarded through a lottery system at the end of the course.

Experimental Design Details

Randomization Method

Randomization is done by Qualtrics.

Randomization Unit

We stratify students based on their gender and then randomly assign them to the control or the two treatment groups based on their gender.

Was the treatment clustered?

Experiment Characteristics

Sample size: planned number of clusters

Two universities across three years

Sample size: planned number of observations

1600 students, including 550 female and 1050 male students.

Sample size (or number of clusters) by treatment arms

Two universities across four years.

Minimum detectable effect size for main outcomes (accounting for sample design and clustering)

We expect an exam grade (on a scale of 1-10) difference of 0.68 (32% of the SD in exam grades) between female and male students under the voluntary treatment and a difference of 0.38 (18% of the SD in exam grades) under the incentivized treatment.

Supporting Documents and Materials

IRB