Short- and Medium-term Evaluation of a Goal-Setting Skills Development Program for Upper Elementary School Students

Abstract

Background: Goal-setting skills development programs conducted at schools are now implemented in Japan and other countries. However, results are unclear because the evaluation studies using the goal-setting skills scale were inadequate.

Objective: The purpose of this study was to evaluate short- and medium-term effectiveness of a program designed to develop goal-setting skills in upper graders of elementary schools.

Methods: The study was conducted using quasi-experimental design. A group of 31 boys and 37 girls in Grade 5 participated in the 12-session program to develop goal-setting skills. The comparison group consisted of 31 boys and 31 girls from the same grade and school. A pre-test was administered before the first session, a post-test after the 12^th session, and a follow-up （f/u） test was conducted in Grade 6, nine months after the intervention to evaluate the effects. The tests used the goal-setting skills scale and questionaire to evaluate responses to the situations in which goal-setting skills had to be used. Repeated-measure ANOVAs were conducted, presupposing a group and time factor to evaluate the effect. Wilcoxon's signed-rank test was used to analyze changes in responses to the questionaire.

Results:

（1） Group × time interaction was significant in overall goal-setting skills. As a result of simple main effect tests and multiple comparisons, the post-test score was significantly higher than the pre-test score and the f/u test score. Moreover, the f/u test score was significantly higher than the pre-test score, and lower than the post-test score in the intervention group. （pre<f/u<post）

（2） Interactions were also significant in the subscales “willingness to achieve,” “planning for achievement,” and “flexible goal setting.” The post-test score was significantly higher than the pre-test score in the intervention group. However, the f/u score was significantly lower than the post-test score in the “willingness to achieve” and “planning for achievement” subscales （pre, f/u<post）, while the post-test score in the subscale “flexible goal setting” showed no significant difference in the f/u test score （pre<post, f/u）. Interaction was not significant in the “consultation with surroundings.”

（3） Concrete responses such as consultation with surroundings and, small goal-setting to cope with goal-setting situations in the questionaire significantly increased in the intervention group.

Conclusion: The results suggested the possibility of the effectiveness of this program for upper graders in elementary schools. However, there was a problem in the continuity of the acquired goal-setting skills. Follow-up learning is necessary to establish goal-setting skills.