The effect of goal setting on reading comprehension and vocabulary in a first grade classroom

Abstract

Seventeen first graders participated in this study revolving around goal setting. The students were assigned to one of three treatment groups: (1) students who set their own goals, (2) students with teacher set goals, and (3) students with no pre-set goals. Students participated in weekly comprehension quizzes. Following the quizzes, students graphed their achievement and those in Group 1 set their reading goal for the following week, while Group 2 students received a goal from the teacher. Students in Group 3 received no pre-determined goals. All students from all groups were assessed on sight word recognition. The pre and post-test data for both reading comprehension and Dolch sight word recognition were examined statistically using analysis of variance. Results indicated that students in Group 1 made statistically significant gains in both comprehension and sight word recognition. There were no statistically significant differences among the three treatment groups in terms of gains made.