Effects of a Scaffold on Quality of Goals Set By Undergraduate Students

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).

University of Victoria

Technology Integration & Evaluation Research Lab1


Technology Integration & Evaluation Research Lab

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



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.



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.



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]



PERCEIVED ATTAINMENT1 = did not attain it at all to

5 = fully attained it



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



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



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.



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.



Distribution of Goal Quality at Beginning and End of Semester

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Beginning End

156

97

124

179

Weak/ModerateGood/Excellent



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.



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.



Current Goal Setting Prompt

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THANK YOU!

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Education

Effects of a Scaffold on Quality of Goals Set By Undergraduate Students