Teaching study and planning skills lifted motivation briefly, but not a year later

The study

1. 01

   Who took part

   100 second-year students in a software testing course at a Dutch university, mostly men, about 22 on average. There were 50 in each group.

2. 02

   What they did

   The course ran for seven weeks. For about six of them, one group was taught study tricks and time planning. They also learned to check their own work against a marking guide and to talk themselves through tasks. They did weekly tasks and got feedback from teachers. The other group had the same course and aids, but nobody taught them how to use the aids.

3. 03

   What happened

   At the end of the course, the taught group rated their motivation a bit higher. But the paper never tested this gap between the groups. A year later, both groups had changed by about the same amount since the start. The taught group's teachers also had extra training.

What the study found

1. No difference

   Students taught study and planning skills were no more motivated a year later than students who just had the aids.

   • Action: Learn better study strategiestested
   • Action: Plan your weektested
   • Rule: Get feedback on your progresstested

   Randomised trial of 100 university students in a software course · vs the same course with the aids but no teaching · they rated themselves · ⚠ groups weren't properly compared

Source