Beyond the Classroom: RCT Insights on Student Motivation, Well-Being, and Engagement

The 'Vilnius is a School' initiative encourages schools across the city of Vilnius to make greater use of public spaces—such as parks, museums, and community institutions—for educational activities. The goal is to bring learning outside the classroom and create more engaging, real-world learning experiences for students.

In this randomised evaluation, 50 schools were selected to be part of the study. Of these, 22 schools were randomly assigned to receive additional encouragement and support. This support included workshops with school administrators, training opportunities, data feedback, and easier access to city-based learning resources. The remaining schools were part of a comparison group and continued with standard access to the program without added encouragement.

The aim of the intervention is to increase the number and quality of outdoor lessons in participating schools. By doing so, the program seeks to improve students’ motivation to learn, their ability to persevere through academic challenges, and their sense of belonging at school and in the city at large.

2024-11-14

2025-04-01

The evaluation focuses on four primary outcomes, measured through an online student survey administered at the end of the intervention period:

1. Interest in Learning (Academic Motivation):
A composite measure capturing students’ intrinsic interest in school subjects and their enjoyment of lessons. It reflects how engaging and motivating students find their school experience.

2. Curiosity, creativity, and students’ valuation of outdoor learning. The survey includes direct questions on students’ interest in exploring topics independently, their enjoyment of creative tasks, and their willingness to give up (pretend) money for the chance to have more outdoor lessons. These measures offer insight into how much students value the experience and whether the program fosters traits linked to long-term learning motivation.

3. Resilience in Learning (Perseverance):
This outcome captures students’ ability to persist through academic challenges. It is based on agreement with statements such as “I don’t give up during lessons, even when the material is hard.”

4. Sense of Belonging at School:
A measure of how strongly students feel part of their school community, including their sense of being valued and accepted by peers and staff.

In addition to the primary outcomes, we will examine several secondary outcomes that capture broader educational and social-emotional dimensions potentially influenced by the intervention. These outcomes are also measured through the Spring 2025 post-intervention student survey:

1. Enjoyment and Engagement with Lessons:
|Whether students perceive lessons outside the classroom as more enjoyable and engaging than regular ones. This includes direct comparisons (e.g., “Learning in other city locations is more interesting than learning at school”).

2. Motivation to Learn and Educational Aspirations:
Includes questions on students’ desire to study more, willingness to pursue further education, and whether outdoor learning increased their enthusiasm for schoolwork.

3. Civic Attitudes and Prosocial Behaviour:
Measures include students’ self-reported motivation to volunteer, help others, and participate in community activities. These outcomes are linked to the program’s broader goals of encouraging active citizenship.

4. Application of Knowledge and Creative Thinking:
Questions explore whether students feel better able to apply what they learn to real-life situations and whether the program encourages creative, independent thinking.

These outcomes provide insight into potential mechanisms through which the program operates and may capture long-term developmental benefits beyond immediate academic engagement. Please see our Pre Analysis Plan document for additional discussion on this, including explanations where necessary.

This study evaluates the Vilnius is a School initiative using a randomised encouragement design at the school level. The program encourages school administrators and teachers to hold lessons in public spaces—such as parks, museums, and civic institutions—to make learning more engaging and connected to the city environment.

A total of 50 public schools have have been selected for the randomized intervention. Among these, 22 schools were randomly selected to receive additional encouragement and support from Edu Vilnius, the municipal body coordinating the program. The remaining schools serve as a comparison group.

Randomisation was conducted at the school level using a stratified random assignment procedure. In particular, for the stratified randomization we used average grades, school size, percent of trained teachers, primary language of the school (i.e. whether the school is an ethnic language school), distance to the city centre, share of pupils receiving free lunch, school type, and prior engagement with outdoor learning. Within each stratum, schools were randomly assigned to either the treatment (encouragement) or control group. This approach ensured balance between groups on variables likely to affect both program uptake and student outcomes.

Randomization done by a computer with publicly available seed driven by randomisation date only

Schools

Yes

50 schools

5,000 survey respondents, from population of around 35,000 students in the 50 schools in the intervention

22 schools treatment, 28 schools control

With 50 schools total (22 in treatment, 28 in control), 700 students per school on average, and an ICC of 0.03 (this is the trickier bit as it seems hard to know exactly how large it would be in our context) — the Minimum Detectable Effect Size (MDES) at 80% power and 5% significance level is around 0.14 standard deviations (we are planning to use standardised outcome variables).