online goal-setting interventie

Online Goal-setting

interventie

Vermindert kansenongelijkheid en

verhoogt studie succes

Prof. Dr. Michaéla Schippers

DEPARTMENT TECHNOLOGY & OPERATIONS MANAGEMENT

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2GkJ3xARKXo

THE GOAL-SETTING PROGRAMME

Intervention created to combat two problems at RSM:

• High drop-out rates of 50%

• Large differences in performance

Causes:

• Students unsure about goals, no deliberate choices

• Low motivation and low study performance

Reasons:

• Individuals with clear goals are more able to direct attention and effort to

goal-relevant activities

IKIGAI - GOAL-SETTING

People with a strong sense of purpose have:

- Boosted immune systems

- Lower stress hormones

And:

Are able to grapple with the difficulties of life

Live longer

• Nowadays more attention to life goals

• goal-setting seen an important skill

http://ngm.nationalgeographic.com/ngm/longevity/1108/daily_vid.html

INTERVENTIONS @ RSM

Pre-academic (control) intervention:

Study choice meetings (SCM; 2009-present)

1. Goal-setting intervention (GS; 2011-present)

2. Nominal is Normal (N=N; 2012-present)

3. Goal diaries (2014-present)

Measuring the effect of the interventions

In 2014 we received the AOM

award for the “best symposium

in Management education and

development”

https://www.rsm.nl/about-rsm/news/detail/3261-symposium-on-

goal-setting-wins-academy-of-management-award/

1. THE GOAL-SETTING INTERVENTION

Part 1

• Guided writing about the future:

– Habits

– Learning

– Social life

– Leisure

– Family

– Career

• Describe ideal future life versus

the life you want to avoid

Part 2

• Describe future plan

• Specifying, clarifying, defining and

prioritizing 6-8 specific goals

• Back-up plans, goal-monitoring

Online computerized goal-setting programme (evidence-based)

Part 3: I WILL statement

3. GOAL DIARIES 24 days during the academic year

GROUP 1:

Reflection on goals

• What goals did you set out to work

on this morning?

• How much time did you spend on

each of those goals?

• Did you actually get to work on

those goals (or did you

procrastinate/get sidetracked)?

• How satisfied are you working on

those goals?

Evaluation questions per goal

GROUP 2:

Questions about activities

• What activities did you work on

today?

• How much time did you spend on

each of those activities?

• How satisfied were you with working

on those activities?

About activities vs goals

No evaluation questions

MAIN FINDINGS GOAL SETTING

ACADEMIC PERFORMANCE

• Academic performance of the intervention cohort

improved by approximately 20%

• Both for credits (21%)

and retention rate (22%)

EQUALITY

• Gender gap closes by 98% in the first year

• Ethnicity gap closes by 38% in the first year

(and by 93% after the second academic year)

(Schippers, Scheepers & Peterson, 2015)

MAIN FINDINGS N=N AND GOAL DIARIES

ACADEMIC PERFORMANCE

• Overall improvement very small

• Especially groups that did good before improved

EQUALITY

• Gender gap bigger

• Ethnicity gap bigger

Goal-setting intervention and Goal Diaries

• Extent of participation important (Schippers, Scheepers, Locke, Morisano, & Peterson, 2016)

MAIN FINDINGS N=N AND GOAL DIARIES

ACADEMIC PERFORMANCE

higher dependent on 3 types of student involvement:

1. Degree of formal participation in the goal-setting

intervention

2. Amount of writing (i.e., number of words written)

3. Quantity and quality of goal-achievement plans (GAP)

• (Schippers, Scheepers, Locke, Morisano, & Peterson, 2016)

RESEARCH FINDINGS

Do the goal-setting cohorts…

Bachelor Management, year 1

700-800 students each year

From 2011 to the present

… do better than cohorts from earlier

years?

Bachelor Management, year 1

700-800 students each year

From 2008 to 2010

20

25

30

35

40

45

control cohort 1 control cohort 2 control cohort 3 intervention cohort

Number of credits (ECTS) after the first academic year by gender

Female

Male

Performance

increase men:

17,65%

Gender gap

closes: 98,25%

GOALSETTING

20

25

30

35

40

45

control cohort 1 control cohort 2 control cohort 3intervention cohort

Number of credits (ECTS) after the first academic year by ethnicity

Ethnic minority

Majority

Performance

increase minority:

38,5%

Ethnicity gap

closes: 38,4%

(and by 93% after

the 2nd year)

GOALSETTING

20

25

30

35

40

45

control cohort 1 control cohort 2 control cohort 3 intervention cohort

Number of credits (ECTS) earned after the first academic year by gender, ethnicity and cohort

GOALSETTING

Majority female

Majority male

Minority female

Minority male

RELATION BETWEEN GS & RESULTS

Cohort 2014-2013

700-800 students

• Is there an effect of extent of participation in the

Goal-setting intervention and Goal Diaries?

• Do students that participate more earn more ECTS?

More direct test

1. Extent of participation in goal setting and # credits (2014-2015)

Difference:

37 ECTS

EFFECT GOAL-SETTING/I WILL

• Do more motivated students participate?

• More conscientious students?

• Mediated by behavior (exam participation)?

Is there an effect of goal-setting over and above these alternative

explanations?

CONTROL VARIABLES

Cohort 2012-2013, first year students

• Age, gender, etnicity

• Registration date

• Big Five: Openess to experience,

Conscientiousness, Agreeableness, Extraversion,

Neuroticism

• Core self-evaluations

• Need for cognition

MORE FULL MODEL, REGRESSION ANALYSIS FIRST YEAR STUDENTS 2012-2013

Participation in exams

Study success

Retention

Goal-setting/I Will

Study-choice meetings

Controlling for age,

gender, registration

date and personality

Goal setting

Nr. of credits β = .44***

Retention rate β = .45***

Number of words and quality and quantity of

goal strategies explained additional variance

GOAL DIARIES: REGRESSION

Hierarchical Regression

• Dependent variable: ECTS

• Control variables: age, gender, big five, motivation, need for cognition,

participation in SCM

• Predictors: goals in life (T1), participation in goal diaries, participation in

goal-setting

Significant beta’s

• Motivation: β = .11**

• Need for cognition: β = .12**

• Extent of participation in goal-setting: β = .20***

• Extent of participation in goal diaries: β = .32***

• To do: Latent growth curve modelling

1. CONTENT ANALYSIS GOAL SETTING

Goal-setting essays of 2011-2012 and 2012-2013

– On average, students wrote 3,000 words

– How well they reflected on Strategies and

Obstacles explained additional variance

– This was highly related to the number of words

written

– Kind of goal (academic or not academic) was

unrelated to study success

CONTENT ANALYSIS GOAL SETTING

Essays rated by a team of student assistants

Four categories

• Number of strategies

• How general/specific the strategies are

• Number of obstacles

• How general/specific the obstacle solutions are

Four categories combined into one:

Goal achievement plans (GAP)

CONTENT ANALYSIS GOAL SETTING

# of strategies/obstacles

• 0 = nothing written

• 1 = written something, but no

strategy/obstacle

• 2 = 1 strategy or obstacle

• 3 = 2 strategies or obstacles

• 4 = 3 strategies or obstacles

… and so on

Specificity of strategies/obstacles

• 0 = nothing written

• 1 = written something, but no strategy

or obstacle solution

• 2 = simple strategy or solution

• 3 = giving examples of strategy or

solution

• 4 = clear, measurable plan of strategy

or solution

“Not making it through the next trimester because

of my low motivation could be an obstacle. Then I

would have to find another way of making my

dream job come true. I’ll need to believe in myself

more to get more motivation.”

2 points for number of obstacles

1 point for specificity of obstacles

Example obstacles

“A possible obstacle is my laziness.

Until now, I’ve never had to study for school to get an

average of 7.3 for my final exams.

I used to do about 2.5 hours of homework every week.

Only in the week before or during my exams, I would start

studying. Now that I’m actually studying at university,

I won’t make it if I continue like that. I will have to work

every day, something that I’m not used to…

The only obstacle is that I won’t do anything, because I’ve

never done anything.”

2 points for number of obstacles

1 point for specificity of obstacles

Example obstacles

Example strategies

“On Monday, Wednesday and Saturday I’ll play

soccer, and I won’t skip any training sessions or

matches anymore on those days.

On Tuesday evening and Sunday evening I will do

some jogging/running.”

3 points for number of strategies

4 points for specificity of strategies

FUTURE ADDITIONS TO GOAL-SETTING

• Turning goal-setting into an entrepreneurial business

• Developing a goal setting app

• Scaling the goal-setting intervention

• Further development goal diaries

• Creating an online support network for people with the same goals

and experiences

CONCLUSIONS

Goal-setting was effective in enhancing study

succes, especially effective for men and ethnic

minorities

The Goal Diaries appear to have an additional

effect on study success

The stretch goal (N=N) seemed to benefit already

thriving students, increasing the gender and

ethnicity gap

Academic institutions should consider using the

goal-setting interventions as part of their

curriculum

GOAL-SETTING IN THE NEWS

• How writing down life goals helps students boost their semester grades by Eric

Schulzke for Deseret News, Feb 2016

• The writing assignment that changes lives by Anya Kamenetz for nprEd, Jul

2015

• How writing down specific goals can empower struggling students by Anya

Kamenetz for KQED News, Jul 2015

• Not satisfied? Rewrite yourself, says research for Female Entrepreneurs, Feb

2015

• Why academic tenacity matters by Scott Barry Kaufman for Scientific

American, April 2014

• Can a writing assignment make you happier, healthier and less stressed? by

Anya Kamenetz for Oprah Magazine, Dec 2013

A few excerpts from news articles

WORKSHOP

Hoe kan de goal-setting interventie het beste

“opgeschaald” worden om een zo groot mogelijk

aantal studenten te bereiken?

– Is persoonlijk contact belangrijk?

– Zijn follow-ups door het jaar heen mogelijk?

– Verplicht onderdeel curriculum?

– De grootte van de schaal: universiteiten, middelbare

scholen, instituten in Nederland of in Europa?

WORKSHOP

Wat zijn de mogelijkheden om de goal-setting

interventie eventueel aan te bieden op het eigen

instituut?

– Wat vind je een pluspunt van deze interventie?

– Hoe zou je dit vorm kunnen/willen geven op jouw

instituut?

– Wat zijn obstakels die je daarbij kunt tegenkomen?

– Hoe ga je daarmee om?

– Hoe wil je de studenten invulling laten geven aan het

public commitment gedeelte (I WILL)?

REFERENCES

Schippers, M. C., & Scheepers, A. W. & Peterson, J. B. (2015). A scalable goal-

setting intervention closes both the gender and minority achievement gap.

Palgrave Communications 1:15014. doi: 10.1057/palcomms.2015.14

Schippers, M. C., Scheepers, A., Morisano, D. & Locke, E. L. &

Peterson, J. B. (2016). Conscious reflection on goals boosts

academic performance independent from goal domain. Working paper.

Schippers, M. C. (2014). Social loafing tendencies and team performance:

The compensating effect of agreeableness and conscientiousness.

Academy of Management Learning & Education, 13 (1), 62-81, doi:

10.5465/amle.2012.0191

Schippers, M. C., Homan, A. C., & van Knippenberg, D. (2013). To reflect or

not to reflect: Prior team performance as a boundary condition of the

effects of reflexivity on learning and final team performance. Journal

of Organizational Behavior, 34, 6-23. doi:10.1002/job.1784

CONTACT STUDYSUCCESS

Dr. Michaéla Schippers

Department of Technology & Operations Management

Rotterdam School of Management

Erasmus University

Burg. Oudlaan 50, 3062 PA Rotterdam

The Netherlands

Room T9-50

+31 (0)10 408 1892

mschippers@rsm.nl

studysuccess@rsm.nl