Effects of a Scaffold on Quality of Goals Set By Undergraduate Students
Elizabeth A. Webster, Mariel Miller, & Allyson F. Hadwin
This research was funded by a SSHRC Standard Research Grant 410-2008-0700 (A. Hadwin) and a SSHRC Doctoral Fellowship (E. Webster).
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Self-Regulated Learning
Active regulation of cognitions, motivation, and behaviours to accomplish goals
Successful self-regulated learners take control of their own learning by Setting task-specific goals Selectively using metacognitive, motivational, and
learning strategies Adapting in the face of challenges
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Winne & Hadwin’s Model of SRL
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Monitoring & Evaluating
Phase 1: Task Perceptions
Phase 2: Goal Setting & Planning
Phase 3: Task Enactment
Phase 4: Large Scale Adaptation
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Properties of Effective Goals in SRL
Specific Short-term Challenging yet attainable
Learning vs. performance Self-set vs. assigned
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Challenges with Goal Setting
Setting vague, long-term goals rather than goals to guide specific study episodes
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Get started!
Organize myself or my time.
Stay on top of my work and catch up on all my readings.
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TASC Goals
Timeframe 2 hours or less Monitor progress frequently
Actions Cognitive processing Guide strategy choice
Standard Concrete criterion Evaluate progress
Content/concepts Specific course material Identify and focus on specific elements
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Goal-Related Perceptions
Goal efficacy Perceived goal difficulty Perceived goal attainment
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Supporting Goal Setting
Our past research Goal setting prompt
Problem: goal quality not high enough
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State one goal you have for improving your learning next week.
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Purpose & Research Questions
Examine how students might be better supported in setting high quality studying goals
1. How does a scaffolded goal setting prompt contribute to goal quality and goal perceptions?
2. Do goal quality and goal perceptions change over time?
3. Are goal quality and goal perceptions related to academic performance?
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METHODS
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Research Setting
ED-D 101: Learning Strategies for University Success
Lecture Week 3: Goal setting module
Lab (10-20 students) Weekly goal setting
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Personal Planning Tool (PPT)
Weekly diary Cycle of planning & reflecting anchored in day-
to-day studying practices Supports SRL and promotes transfer of SRL
cycles across study episodes
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GOAL PERCEIVED DIFFICULTY1 = easy to 5 = extremely
challenging
GOAL EFFICACY1 = cannot do it at all to
5 = highly certain I can do it]
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PERCEIVED ATTAINMENT1 = did not attain it at all to
5 = fully attained it
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Conditions
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Open-Ended Condition (PPT A) Scaffolded Condition (PPT B)
For the task you selected above, set one goal for this week. Remember a good goal statement includes information about: what action, what course content or concepts, when (day, time, duration) & to what degree, amount, or standard.___________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________
My goal is to
What? (Course concepts or content)_______________________________
When? (day, time)_______________________________
To what degree, amount, or standard?_______________________________
defineexplainanalyze
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97 ParticipantsOpen-Ended Scaffolded
n 43 54
Female 60.5% 51.9%
Age (SD) 19.1 yrs (2.6) 19.4 yrs (4.1)
High school avg (SD) 81.1% (7.5) 80.9% (6.4)
Term GPA (SD) 5.0/9.0 (1.7) 5.0/9.0 (1.3)
1st year 59.5% 50.0%
Faculty of social science 53.5% 44.4%
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Timeline
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Week 4
PPT A
PPT B
Week 5
PPT A
PPT B
Week 6
PPT A
PPT B
Week 7
PPT A
PPT B
Week 8
PPT A
PPT B
Week 9
PPT A
PPT B
Week 10
PPT A
Week 11
PPT A
Week 12
PPT A
Goal Quality Coding
Intervention
Week 1
PPT A
Week 2
PPT A
Week 3
PPT A
Goal Quality Coding
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Coding Goal Quality
565 goals 2 independent coders Coded each TASC criterion
0 (absent), 1 (weak), or 2 (strong) Overall quality score out of 8
Grouped goals into Weak (0-2) Moderate (3-4) Good (5-6) Excellent (7-8)
Discrepancies resolved through discussion
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Goal Quality
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Level of quality (score)
%(N = 565)
Description Example
Weak (1)
14.0%
•Few or no properties of TASC goals•Often planning goals or too vague
My goal is to balance my work with my own spare time. I plan on reading ahead in both my Soc and Poli textbooks before next class. I don't have a specific time for this task to be done as long as I strive myself to read ahead before the next class.
Moderate (2)
36.5%
•At least two properties of TASC goals•Often behavioural in nature and/or to-do lists
On monday my task is to go to the library and find useful resources for my essay. The following day I will give myself an hour to read over my sources and choose which sources will be useful. By thursday night my goal is to have an outline and thesis statement for my essay.
Good (3)
34.3%
•At least three properties of TASC goals•Overall goal is good•Missing one property or weak in two properties
For PSYC test 2 on Friday, re-create a table of brain structures (brain areas, hindbrain, midbrain and forebrain) and organize specific functions for each of those brains. Explain in my words how each function works and relate each other.
Excellent (4)
15.2%
•All four properties of TASC goals•Overall goal is strong
Friday from 10:30 to 12:30, I will analyze the different DC Motor Speed vs Torque plots obtained from the lab 3 data and be able to explain (in-depth) the effects of using terminal voltage, field current, and series resistance in speed control of DC motors.
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FINDINGS
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Q1: Did Scaffolding Affect Goal Quality and Goal Perceptions?
No difference between open-ended and scaffolded conditions at end of semester
RM MANOVA assessing change over time in goal quality, goal efficacy, perceived difficulty, perceived attainment Mean scores at beginning (Weeks 1/2/3) and end (Weeks
10/11/12) of the semester No interaction
F(4, 91) = .83, p = .512, partial 2 = .04
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Q2: Did Goal Quality and Goal Perceptions Change Over Time?
Main effect of time F(4, 91) = 27.04, p < .001, partial 2 = .54
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Beginning (T1, T2, T3)
End(T10, T11, T12) Repeated-measures ANOVA
M SD M SD F pPartial
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Goal qualitya
2.23 0.60 2.81 0.76 74.84 <.001 .44
Goal efficacyb
3.97 0.58 4.09 0.70 2.52 .116 .03
Perceived difficultyb 3.25 0.65 3.42 0.71 4.55 .036 .05
Perceived attainmentb 3.74 0.77 4.03 0.87 8.09 .005 .08
Note. N = 96. aGoal quality scored on a scale from 1 to 4. bRated on a scale from 1 to 5.
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Distribution of Goal Quality at Beginning and End of Semester
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Beginning End
156
97
124
179
Weak/ModerateGood/Excellent
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Q3: Were Goal Quality and Goal Perceptions Related to Term GPA?
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Term GPAr p
Goal quality
Beginning .40 <.001
End .37 <.001
Goal efficacy
Beginning .24 .020
End .15 .152
Perceived difficulty
Beginning -.02 .836
End .08 .425
Perceived attainment
Beginning .26 .011
End .20 .046
Note. N = 96.
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DISCUSSION
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Supporting Goal Setting Higher goal quality associated with higher term
GPA Students can learn to set high quality goals
Instruction in effective goal setting Weekly practice
Evolving goal setting prompt
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Original Prompt
State one goal you have for improving your learning next week.
For the task you selected above, set one goal for this week. Remember a good goal statement includes information about: what action, what course content or concepts, when (day, time, duration) & to what degree, amount, or standard.
Revised Prompt
This week while studying for my psychology midterm I will make a mind map of the different fields of psychology. I will cover their main ideas, main psychologists, and other key terms. This will help me to visually see the differences so that I can compare and contrast them during the test when the question comes up. I will do this Friday morning for 2 hours. The mind map will be colourful and contain pictures as well as words.
My goal for this week is to work on my math practice problems and readings for an hour and half every day in order to begin to understand how to use matrices when solving algebraic problems, and i wish further my understanding of chapter 8 probability concepts.
For this week my goal is to create a conecpt map for Econ 205 making connections from chapters 8 (monopolys) and 9 (oligopolies). Using the connections, I will formulate a paragraph summarizing the chapters using at least 5 of the connections mentioned in the concept map. I will do this goal from 7-8PM Thursday night.
Friday from 10:30 to 12:30, I will analyze the different DC Motor Speed vs Torque plots obtained from the lab 3 data and be able to explain (in-depth) the effects of using terminal voltage, field current, and series resistance in speed control of DC motors.
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Current Goal Setting Prompt
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THANK YOU!
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