Setting, elaborating, and reflecting on personal goals improves academic performance.
Of students who enroll in 4-year universities, 25% never finish. Precipitating causes of early departure include poor academic progress and lack of clear goals and motivation. In the present study, we investigated whether an intensive, online, written, goal-setting program for struggling students would have positive effects on academic achievement. Students (N = 85) experiencing academic difficulty were recruited to participate in a randomized, controlled intervention. Participants were randomly assigned to 1 of 2 intervention groups: Half completed the goal-setting program, and half completed a control task with intervention-quality face validity. After a 4-month period, students who completed the goal-setting intervention displayed significant improvements in academic performance compared with the control group. The goal-setting program thus appears to be a quick, effective, and inexpensive intervention for struggling undergraduate students.
Department of Educational and Counselling Psychology, McGill University, Montreal, Quebec, Canada. morisano@gmail.com
Dominique
D
Morisano
Jacob B
JB
Hirsh
Jordan B
JB
Peterson
Robert O
RO
Pihl
Bruce M
BM
Shore
D000124:Achievement; D000293:Adolescent; D005260:Female; D006040:Goals; D006801:Humans; D020407:Internet; D008297:Male; D009042:Motivation; D012931:Social Environment; D012984:Software; D013332:Student Dropouts / Q000523:psychology*; D011795:Surveys and Questionnaires; D055815:Young Adult