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Can Grit be Taught? Learning from a field experiment with middle school students in FYR Macedonia

Last registered on March 17, 2017
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Pre-Trial

Trial Information

General Information

Title
Can Grit be Taught? Learning from a field experiment with middle school students in FYR Macedonia
RCT ID
AEARCTR-0002094
Initial registration date
March 17, 2017

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
March 17, 2017, 3:38 PM EDT

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

Locations

Country
Macedonia (the former Yugoslav Republic of)
Region

Primary Investigator

Name
Ana Maria Munoz Boudet
Affiliation
World Bank
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Other Primary Investigator(s)

PI Name
Christian Krekel
PI Affiliation
Paris School of Economics
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PI Name
Omar Arias
PI Affiliation
World Bank
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PI Name
Indhira Santos
PI Affiliation
World Bank
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PI Name
Pedro Carneiro
PI Affiliation
University College of London
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PI Name
Angela Duckworth
PI Affiliation
University of Pennsylvania
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PI Name
Lauren Eskreis-Winkler
PI Affiliation
University of Pennsylvania
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Additional Trial Information

Status
Completed
Start date
2016-02-01
End date
2016-05-13
Keywords
Education
Additional Keywords
socio-emotional skills, gender
JEL code(s)
I24, J24, I20
Secondary IDs
Abstract
A growing body of literature points to the key role of socio-emotional skills in predicting educational success. Among these skills, grit – passion and perseverance in the pursuit of long-term goals (Duckworth et al., 2007) – has been shown to predict educational success over and beyond innate ability. We designed and implemented an intervention into the country-wide curriculum of middle school students in FYR Macedonia aimed at cultivating grit by teaching students the fundamentals of deep practice: setting and pursuing stretch goals through repeat effort, using effective self-regulation strategies, and adopting growth mindsets (Eskreis-Winkler et al., forthcoming). It also aimed at evoking positive role models and reducing stereotype threat, especially for girls and Roma children. The intervention, which comprises five consecutive sessions delivered during a school semester to students in 6th and 7th grade in FYR Macedonia, was delivered as part of an existing one-hour class in the Ministry of National Education and Science curriculum aimed at cultivating general life and civic skills. It is implemented as a multi-arm cluster-randomized controlled trial at the school level: the first treatment arm relies on student following a self-learning curriculum, whereas the second treatment relies on a teacher-delivered curriculum using the same content. The impact of the intervention on student attitudes, beliefs, behaviors, and educational outcomes is evaluated.
External Link(s)

Registration Citation

Citation
Arias, Omar et al. 2017. "Can Grit be Taught? Learning from a field experiment with middle school students in FYR Macedonia." AEA RCT Registry. March 17. https://doi.org/10.1257/rct.2094-1.0
Former Citation
Arias, Omar et al. 2017. "Can Grit be Taught? Learning from a field experiment with middle school students in FYR Macedonia." AEA RCT Registry. March 17. https://www.socialscienceregistry.org/trials/2094/history/15128
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Experimental Details

Interventions

Intervention(s)
The objective of the nation-wide intervention is to cultivate grit among sixth and seventh grade students in FYR Macedonia by (i) introducing them to the notion of deep practice, which provides practical strategies to set stretch goals, avoid distractions, and stay on task, even in the face of struggle and frustration; (ii) helping them to improve concentration whilst learning; and (iii) providing them with strategies to elicit effective feedback from teachers and other sources. Special attention is paid to avoiding stereotype biases against girls and ethnic minorities, especially Roma children. In doing so, the intervention is expected to increase school performance, facilitate primary-to-secondary-school transitions, and influence students’ aspirations and expectations about the future. Moreover, it is expected to promote a change in attitudes among students and teachers that tend to put one gender or ethnic minority at relative disadvantage, and to promote a change in attitudes among teachers that can demotivate students. The intervention has two treatment arms: the first is self-paced and relies entirely on student self-learning; the second adds a teacher training module and relies on teachers to deliver the intervention. The control group receives the conventional, existing “Life Skills” curriculum by the Ministry of National Education and Science that aims at cultivating general life and civic skills. The intervention considered 5 weekly lessons, delivered during consecutive Mondays (when feasible) in a given school year semester.
Intervention Start Date
2016-02-15
Intervention End Date
2016-04-15

Primary Outcomes

Primary Outcomes (end points)
Grit, Frustration reaction, Locus of control, aspirations and expectations, grades
Primary Outcomes (explanation)
The outcomes “grit” and “deliberate practice” are equally-weighted summed scales, constructed from their various sub-scales. Grades will be constructed indexes aggregating different subject grades over the respective time period.

Secondary Outcomes

Secondary Outcomes (end points)
Secondary Outcomes (explanation)

Experimental Design

Experimental Design
The intervention has been implemented as a cluster-randomized controlled trial at the school level, with schools being randomly allocated into either treatment group one, treatment group two, or the control group. Randomization was stratified at the municipal level to ensure a national representativeness in group allocation. Impacts will be assessed for each treatment group against the control group, and for the different treatment groups against one another. Possible impacts on educational outcomes of non-treated grades (spillovers) will be analyzed conditional on the main results.
Experimental Design Details
Randomization Method
Randomization done in office by a computer.
Randomization Unit
Cluster randomization at the school level.
Was the treatment clustered?
Yes

Experiment Characteristics

Sample size: planned number of clusters
350 schools
Sample size: planned number of observations
40,000 students
Sample size (or number of clusters) by treatment arms
110 schools aprox per treatment arm
Minimum detectable effect size for main outcomes (accounting for sample design and clustering)
Supporting Documents and Materials
IRB

Institutional Review Boards (IRBs)

IRB Name
University of Pennsylvania IRB
IRB Approval Date
2015-10-12
IRB Approval Number
Details not available
Analysis Plan

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Post-Trial

Post Trial Information

Study Withdrawal

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Intervention

Is the intervention completed?
No
Data Collection Complete
Data Publication

Data Publication

Is public data available?
No

Program Files

Program Files
Reports, Papers & Other Materials

Relevant Paper(s)

Reports & Other Materials