When Goal-Setting Forges Ahead but Stops Short

Arbeitspapier

In this study, we use at scale randomized control trial among 18,000 secondary students in 181 schools in Tanzania (Zanzibar) to examine the effects of personal best goal-settings on students' academic performance. We also offer non-financial rewards to students to meet the goals they set. We find that goal-setting has a significant positive impact on student time use, study effort, and self-discipline. However, we do not find any significant impact of goalsetting on test scores. We find that, this could be partially because about 2/3rd of students do not set realistic goals. Third, we find weaker results on time use, study effort, and discipline when we combine goal-setting with non-financial rewards, suggesting that typing goal-setting to extrinsic incentives could weaken its impact. We also find that female students improved on outcomes much more than male students and that students coming from relatively weaker socio-economic backgrounds improved more than their counterparts.

Angaben zum Objekt

• Sprache: Englisch

Verweise und Beziehungen

• Erschienen in: Series: IZA Discussion Papers ; No. 13188

Klassifikation und Themen

• Klassifikation: Wirtschaft ; Education and Research Institutions: General ; Education and Economic Development ; Economic Development: Human Resources; Human Development; Income Distribution; Migration ; Economywide Country Studies: Africa
• Thema: goal-setting ; recognition rewards ; student performance ; Zanzibar

Beteiligte, Orts- und Zeitangaben

• Ereignis: Geistige Schöpfung
• (wer): Islam, Asadul ; Kwon, Sungoh ; Masood, Eema ; Prakash, Nishith ; Sabarwal, Shwetlena ; Saraswat, Deepak
• Ereignis: Veröffentlichung
• (wer): Institute of Labor Economics (IZA)
• (wo): Bonn
• (wann): 2020

Weitere Informationen

• Handle: http://hdl.handle.net/10419/216500
• Letzte Aktualisierung: 10.03.2025, 11:42 MEZ