Experimental Design
To identify the effects of these courses on our targeted outcomes, we create a multi-arm of study involving four cross-cutting sets of treatments, three sets of treatments for students only and one set of combination treatments between students and parents. Three sets of treatments for students consist with 1) receiving growth mindset course only treatment, 2) receiving career perspective course only treatment, and 3) receiving both growth mindset and career perspective courses treatments. A set of combination treatments between students and parents is a combination between students and parents receiving both curricula. In addition to curricula, two types of incentive are also tested in this arm. These two types of incentives are financial conditional and unconditional rewards. For the former one, parents will receive reward if scores from standardize tests after the intervention of their children are improved by at least 30 percent compared to those before the intervention. On the other hand, for unconditional reward, parents will receive reward after the end of intervention no matter whether standardize tests scores of their children are improved or not. From this design, there are therefore seven experimental groups in total, six treatment groups and one control group.
The sample was randomized from public schools in Khon Kaen and Udonthani provinces. The criteria for school selection are as follow. Schools with the number of students in grade 4 and/ or grade 7 and the number of extra-poor students in grade 4 and/ or 7 at least at the average of all schools in the province were kept for randomization. These schools were then grouped by districts in each province.
Districts with less than 7 schools (determined by the number of experimental groups) were dropped out from our school list. From these criteria, 346 schools were eligible for randomization, which can be divided by province as follows: 201 schools in Khon Kaen and 145 schools in Udon Thani. Due to budgetary constraints and study duration, the research team sampled 245 schools from both provinces as samples for the study. Khon Kaen province has 145 schools or approximately 58 percent of the total schools in the study. And Udon Thani has 100 schools or approximately 40 percent of the total number of schools in the study. In addition, the research team added 6 schools from Kalasin province to be the sample resulting in 251 schools in total.
The sample size (schools, students, and parents) by grade is the following (These numbers could be changed after the interventions implemented.):
Treatment 1 (TS1): Students receive a course on career perspective, no parent intervention
• Schools in TS1: schools with grade 4 only= 14, schools with grade 7 only = 2, schools with grade 4 and 7=17
• Students in TS1: Grade 4 = 837, Grade 7 = 994
• Parents in TS1: 0
Treatment 2 (TS2): Students receive a course on Growth Mindset, no parent intervention
• Schools in TS2: schools with grade 4 only = 14, schools with grade 7 only = 4, schools with grade 4 and 7=18
• Students in TS2: Grade 4 = 909, Grade 7 = 1216
• Parents in TS2: 0
Treatment 3 (TS3): Students receive a course on career perspective and on Growth Mindset, no parent intervention
• Schools in TS3: schools with grade 4 only = 15, schools with grade 7 only = 8, schools with grade 4 and 7=17
• Students in TS3: Grade 4 = 1001, Grade 7 = 1803
• Parents in TS3: 0
Treatment 4 (TS4): Students receive a course on career perspective and on Growth Mindset, parents receive a course on career perspective and on Growth Mindset, parents receive no financial incentive
• Schools in TS4: schools with grade 4 only = 13, schools with grade 7 only = 5, schools with grade 4 and 7=18
• Students in TS4: Grade 4 = 736, Grade 7 = 1285
• Parents in TS4: Grade 4 = 166, Grade 7 = 243
Treatment 5 (TS5): Students receive a course on career perspective and on Growth Mindset, parents receive a course on career perspective and on Growth Mindset, parents receive conditional financial incentive
• Schools in TS5: schools with grade 4 only = 14, schools with grade 7 only = 4, schools with grade 4 and 7=15
• Students in TS5: Grade 4 = 772, Grade 7 = 1115
• Parents in TS5: Grade 4 = 171, Grade 7 = 170
Treatment 6 (TS6): Students receive a course on career perspective and on Growth Mindset, parents receive a course on career perspective and on Growth Mindset, parents receive unconditional financial incentive
• Schools in TS6: schools with grade 4 only = 10, schools with grade 7 only = 8, schools with grade 4 and 7=16
• Students in TS6: Grade 4 = 885, Grade 7 = 1575
• Parents in TS6: Grade 4 = 208, Grade 7 = 300
Control 1 (C1): No interventions on students and on parents
• Schools in C1: schools with grade 4 only = 14, schools with grade 7 only = 7, schools with grade 4 and 7=19
• Students in C1: Grade 4 = 876, Grade 7 = 2051
• Parents in C1: Grade 4 = 188, Grade 7 = 237