Lessons on goals, planning and self-tracking helped schoolgirls put off schoolwork less
Who it’s about: Students, Children
- Helped
Girls who had eight lessons on goals, plans, tracking and rewards put off schoolwork less than usual teaching.
- Action: Set a specific goaltested
- Action: Track your progresstested
- Rule: Reward yourself right aftertested
- Rule: Practise with a groupused
Small randomised trial of 77 schoolgirls in Tabriz, Iran · vs a class that kept its usual teaching · they rated themselves · ⚠ whole groups were assigned, not people; results look too good to be true
- Helped
Lessons on tracking their own work and time beat study-skills lessons, and those beat usual teaching.
- Action: Track your progresstested
- Action: Do a short study sessionused
- Rule: Practise with a groupused
Small randomised trial of 77 schoolgirls in Tabriz, Iran · vs 8 lessons on study skills · they rated themselves · ⚠ whole groups were assigned, not people; results look too good to be true
The study
Who took part
77 girls in their second year of secondary school, from three classes of one girls' school in Tabriz, Iran. Each whole class got one programme: 27 girls, 24 girls and 26 girls.
What they did
One class had 8 group lessons on managing themselves. They learned to set study goals, plan time, track their own work and reward themselves. They also worked on kind self-talk, stress and a tidy study space. A second class had 8 lessons on study skills, such as reading, memory and tests. The third class kept its usual teaching.
What happened
At the end, the girls who learned to manage themselves rated themselves as putting things off least. The study-skills class came next, and the usual-teaching class put things off most. The gaps were very large. Whole classes, not single girls, were put into groups, so the sizes are hard to trust. There was no later check.
Source
Comparison of the effectiveness of academic life skills training and motivational self-regulation on academic procrastination of secondary school female students in Tabriz city (2024)
DOI: 10.82322/jwsf.2025.1128919 (opens in a new tab)
