Empowering Futures: Enhancing Student Awareness and Career Readiness Through Innovative Classroom Interventions

Last registered on January 06, 2025

Pre-Trial

Trial Information

General Information

Title
Empowering Futures: Enhancing Student Awareness and Career Readiness Through Innovative Classroom Interventions
RCT ID
AEARCTR-0015116
Initial registration date
January 04, 2025

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
January 06, 2025, 12:40 PM EST

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

Locations

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Primary Investigator

Affiliation
University of Bologna

Other Primary Investigator(s)

PI Affiliation
University of Bologna

Additional Trial Information

Status
In development
Start date
2025-01-07
End date
2025-06-30
Secondary IDs
Prior work
This trial does not extend or rely on any prior RCTs.
Abstract
Using a randomized controlled trial (RCT) design, this study investigates how motivational messages impact students’ framing and decision-making a¬round college and career pathways. Here, we implemented the intervention at the end of the orientation courses funded by the PNRR, consisting of two different textual prompts: the first message concerns with the extrinsic motivations: reaching higher education is a pathway to reach (and deserves to be taken, e.g., pay raise job security in a market, etc.). The second message corresponds to intrinsic motivations: it highlights that education is a journey of personal development and a way to open oneself to the world.
The RCT explores how these contrasting messages influence students' choices, aspirations, and reflections on their educational trajectories. Through the integration of questions about their socio-demographic background, previous educational experiences, and perceptions of university education, the study seeks to understand the factors shaping students’ educational and career intentions. This design allows for a robust analysis of the role of motivational framing in shaping future-oriented behaviors. Overall, the results of this research will serve not only to bring more evidence-based recommendations for improvement to orientation programs, but also to contribute to a wider movement towards equity in education and aid the creation of educational programs that not only prevent them from falling behind, but rather that graduate informed consumers to help fight inequalities.
External Link(s)

Registration Citation

Citation
Pignataro, Giuseppe and Cristina Specchi. 2025. "Empowering Futures: Enhancing Student Awareness and Career Readiness Through Innovative Classroom Interventions." AEA RCT Registry. January 06. https://doi.org/10.1257/rct.15116-1.0
Experimental Details

Interventions

Intervention(s)
This intervention is embedded within the PNRR orientation courses and targets all students present in the classroom during the final session of the program. Regardless of whether students attended all sessions or only a portion, every individual in the class is involved. The goal is to deliver a structured, informed experience to assess and foster their awareness of their skills and aspirations for the future. At the conclusion of the orientation, each teacher assigned to the program will administer a comprehensive questionnaire to the entire class. This questionnaire is accessible via QR code, streamlining the process and ensuring wide participation. The questionnaire is designed to serve two purposes. The first collects feedback from students that have followed the orientation program; these specific questions and the relative answers should be sent to the Ministry of Education to improve and streamline future efforts. Second, it contains random information specific to every student. This randomized part consists of motivational material to attempt to increase students’ self-awareness, self-reflection on their potential, and a proactive attitude towards their academic and professional pathways. By facilitating an environment where students are exposed to both reflective and motivational materials, the intervention not only evaluates the program’s effectiveness but also acts as a catalyst for fostering a forward-thinking mindset. It ensures equitable access to guidance and support for all students, regardless of their prior engagement, and represents a critical step toward shaping informed, capable individuals ready to navigate their future.
Intervention Start Date
2025-01-12
Intervention End Date
2025-06-30

Primary Outcomes

Primary Outcomes (end points)
The primary outcomes of interest for this experiment are for assessing the high-frequency impact of the orientation course and the information intervention. These results are intimately connected to what students know, what they want and what they decide about their educational and career paths and offer the comprehensive framework for understanding the impact of the program.
One outcome is how aware students are of higher education and career opportunities. This evaluates students on their knowledge of available postsecondary options including pathways to university, technical schools, and vocational options, and the career information associated with them. The shaping of such awareness is the aim of the intervention, which is especially relevant for students from diverse socioeconomic backgrounds, as they are less likely to access information about the market conditions. An accumulation of awareness is necessary for students to be able to make educated decisions regarding their futures.

Another important outcome is perceived confidence in students’ ability to make informed educational and career decisions. This reflects shifts in their self-reported eagerness to make a choice for a pathway that fits their dreams, skills, and ambitions. Confidence in decision-making is an important soft skill that shapes students’ ability and willingness to pursue ambitious and informed choices. This intervention hopes to instill a sense of ownership regarding their own educational journeys by increasing their confidence.

Another critical outcome is motivation and ambition for postsecondary education. The program aims to inspire students to be more motivated to pursue post-secondary education and reach for higher-level education and career positions. An increase in motivation and greater ambitions is an indication that the intervention is working: Develop a forward-looking mindset and incentivise long-term investments in education.

The retention of knowledge from the orientation program is another important measure. This outcome assesses the degree to which students remember and understand the information provided, particularly regarding the benefits of pursuing higher education and the skills required in the labor market. Effective retention reflects the program’s ability to deliver impactful content that resonates with students and supports their decision-making.
In addition to these, student satisfaction with the orientation program is evaluated. This measures students’ perceptions of the program’s quality, relevance, and usefulness as captured through the initial sections of the questionnaire. Satisfaction levels provide essential feedback for refining the program and ensuring that it aligns with the needs and expectations of the students.

Finally, the study examines students’ behavioral intentions to act on the information provided during the intervention. This includes intentions to explore higher education opportunities, discuss options with their families, or seek further guidance from educators. Behavioral intention is a useful surrogate for program effects on real choices and subsequent behaviors.

We feel that these primary outcomes demonstrate the cross-cutting effect of the intervention, as well as the guiding principle at the heart of the intervention: to enable students to make informed, active choices about their futures. The study features an array of indicators as outcomes, which are the original intention of the program, and consequently informs us to what extent the program is successful in helping students move through the complex transition from secondary education to higher education and the labor market. This assessment will also inform more extensive policies regarding equity, inclusion, and the expansion of educational opportunities.
Primary Outcomes (explanation)

Secondary Outcomes

Secondary Outcomes (end points)
Secondary Outcomes (explanation)

Experimental Design

Experimental Design
This study employs a randomized controlled trial (RCT) to assess the impact of an informational intervention delivered to students in high school at the end of an orientation held for a sample of participants of a program funded by PNRR. The intervention sought to examine the impact of exposure to targeted messages, which are educational or career-related, on students' awareness, confidence and motivation about their academic and professional pathways.

The experiment will be conducted in high schools that participated in the PNRR orientation program. At the end of the program, all students present in each participating class, irrespective of the level of their engagement during the orientation course, will be randomly assigned to one of two groups. Each group will receive different informational messages -- randomized at the individual level. These messages are intentionally crafted to highlight various elements of post-secondary education and professional trajectories. For example, a set of messages emphasizes the collective benefits of pursuing higher education and the personal development it engenders, while the second set emphasizes job-related benefits and material improvements, such as increased earning potential and job security.

The intervention is implemented via a questionnaire that has a dual function: gathering student feedback on the orientation program and conveying the randomized messages. The questionnaire will be conducted digitally through QR codes, making it accessible and enabling real-time data gathering. The survey can also provide insight into students' satisfaction with the orientation program, their awareness of educational opportunities and their perceived confidence to decide and act on the information provided.

The design allows for a robust evaluation of the causal effects of the informational intervention. By comparing the outcomes across the three randomized groups (the third one does not receive any message), the study seeks to determine which type of message is more effective in enhancing students’ aspirations and decision-making capabilities. Stratification by demographic and socioeconomic characteristics, such as gender, parental education, and academic performance, will enable a deeper understanding of heterogeneity in treatment effects. The measures have been included in two categories that ensure reliability and validity, respectively, in the experimental design. The questionnaire and messages have been pre-tested for clarity and resonation. Various ethical aspects (informed consent, data security, etc.) were duly respected and all data collection followed the guidelines of institutions.

This experimental intervention not only measures the direct effects of messaging on students’ plans but is also an important case study of how targeted messaging can address educational inequities and disparity between student goals and opportunities. This randomized design establishes a causal link between the intervention and any identified effects, providing the evidence basis for policies aimed at improving the educational and career paths of high school students.
Experimental Design Details
Not available
Randomization Method

We randomly assign treatment condition at the individual class–level (in a permuted block randomization) using an automated computer–based procedure within an embedded online survey platform. The survey is conducted at the end of orientation course 15 hours of standardized instruction delivered by a single instructor is given to all the classes.

Everyone must attend this last session if s/he is to get a certificate of completion (75% attendance required). Attendance is carefully tracked and monitored, ensuring that randomized population includes students that have had any meaningful engagement with the orientation program. Such scrutiny not only adds credibility to the findings, but also better guarantees that the intervention is reaching the target of people who benefitted from the program core content.

On the day of the survey, each student present in the class receives a unique QR code that grants access to the questionnaire. The randomization takes place when they access the survey. The survey platform then randomly tasked students to either Group A, where students are presented with broader societal and personal growth benefits of higher education, or Group B, where the focus is on economic and career benefits of pursuing higher education. This randomization is achieved via an algorithm that guarantees equal probability assignment to each group.

Since the randomization is automated and built into the survey system, it is completely transparent and verifiable. This guarantees that the assignment process is free of bias, and the randomized allocation does not depend on any classroom interactions or distinct qualities of the students themselves. The integrity of the randomization procedure is further safeguarded by the fact that the survey platform logs each assignment and timestamp, creating an auditable trail for review.

By employing randomization within the controlled setting of the final class session, the study ensures a robust experimental design. This enables the causal effect of the various information treatments to be estimated independently of the common classroom environment and standardized instruction all subjects received. This methodology not only guarantees internal validity but must also comply with ethical considerations, given their equal access to participation and the fact that all students are made aware of the aims and extent of their inclusion in the study beforehand.

In conclusion, by using an automated randomization process coupled with standardized course content and mandatory attendance, we provide a reliable and robust test to measure if the informational intervention increased students' educational aspirations and decision-making processes.
Randomization Unit

The randomization unit for this study is at the individual level, with all randomization occurring within the classroom context. Each student present during the final class session, which follows 15 hours of standardized instruction, is randomly assigned to one of two informational treatment groups through an automated computer-based randomization embedded in the online survey platform.

Although the randomization occurs at the individual level, the context is defined by clusters, as students are grouped by their respective classes. The uniformity of the instructional content across all classes ensures that any potential variation due to classroom-level factors is minimized, preserving the integrity of the randomization process at the individual level. The clustering is essential to account for shared classroom experiences, but the assignment to treatments is completely independent of these group dynamics.

This dual-layer design -- individual-level randomization within class clusters -- ensures robust causal inference while maintaining the practical feasibility of implementation. Each student's assignment is random and independent, yet the classroom environment provides a controlled setting that supports consistency across the broader intervention.
Was the treatment clustered?
Yes

Experiment Characteristics

Sample size: planned number of clusters
The planned number of clusters for this study consists of 300 classrooms, each corresponding to a distinct course section across participating schools. Within each classroom, all students present during the final session—after completing at least 75% of the required 15 hours of instruction—will participate in the randomization process.

This makes the 300 clusters unique educational environments, yet covering the same course materials and course structure to maintain a common ground for the intervention. However, the individual-level randomization allows us to control for potential confounding due to intra-class correlations and shared experience within the same classroom in our analysis.
Sample size: planned number of observations
Therefore, the target sample size across the 300 classrooms is simply 10,000 students, which is the planned number of observations for this study. We will include all students who appeared in the final session, given that they had met the 75% minimum attendance requirement of the 15-hour course. This target number will give us an adequate sample size to examine with power effects of practical significance, while also allowing for variability in attendance or participation rates between classrooms. We also focused on a substantial number of observations equal to our objectives of eliciting a wide variety of student perspectives and behaviours derived from the intervention outcomes for robust generalisable insights.
Sample size (or number of clusters) by treatment arms
The study includes two treatment arms, both with a focus on improving student engagement and motivation. In the first treatment, students get an informational text explaining the importance of higher education in their personal development and in society at large. This comprises around 5 or 10 clusters (classrooms) per school and includes over 100 schools with a total of 5,000 students. In the second treatment, students receive a different informative text emphasizing the financial and career benefits of higher education. This group has the same dimension. Each classroom within each school serves as a cluster, ensuring that the randomization is at the classroom level and allowing for the evaluation of the relative effectiveness of the two messaging strategies.
Minimum detectable effect size for main outcomes (accounting for sample design and clustering)
IRB

Institutional Review Boards (IRBs)

IRB Name
IRB Approval Date
IRB Approval Number