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

Last registered on October 24, 2023
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Pre-Trial

Trial Information

General Information

Title
Using Goals to Motivate Students: The role of gender 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
October 24, 2023, 1:29 PM EDT

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

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Primary Investigator

Name
Sarah Rezaei
Affiliation
Utrecht University
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Other Primary Investigator(s)

PI Name
Hendrik Sonnabend
PI Affiliation
Hagen University
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PI Name
Bastian Westbrock
PI Affiliation
Hamburg University
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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, 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. 2023. "Using Goals to Motivate Students: The role of gender and self-control." AEA RCT Registry. October 24. https://doi.org/10.1257/rct.11737-1.2
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 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. In particular, female students benefit from goal setting more than male students.
Primary Outcomes (explanation)

Secondary Outcomes

Secondary Outcomes (end points)
Secondary Outcomes (explanation)

Experimental Design

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
Not available
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?
No

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 three 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

Institutional Review Boards (IRBs)

IRB Name
Utrecht University- Utrecht School of Economics
IRB Approval Date
2021-05-06
IRB Approval Number
34/2021
Analysis Plan