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Potential-based goals may hold key to struggling college students' academic success

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Credit: Unsplash/CC0 Public Domain

A quantitative economist at Maastricht University in the Netherlands has attempted to test what he describes as the underappreciated role of potential-based goals in college students. In his study, in the British Journal of Educational Psychology, Dirk Tempelaar tested theories he has developed regarding different types of goal-setting by college students.

As Tempelaar notes, most students attending colleges around the world use multiple factors to rate themselves on how well they are doing and in setting their future academic goals. Goals typically focus on attaining certain or performing comparably to others in the same classes, or even student standings compared to others at the same grade level.

Such goals, he suggests, overlook what he describes as potential-based goals, in which students assess their current performance and use the results to set goals for their own future. Such an approach, he suggests, can help students better see what they need to do to succeed at gaining a .

To test his theories, Tempelaar accessed data for the school years 2015鈥2016 to 2023鈥2024 for students attending a Dutch business and economics school. He chose the school because of its diverse international student body and because of the student-centered approach used by the school.

The school has a Triple Crown accreditation, and it collects data on its students as a way to help them see how they are doing, and to help teachers and administrators identify those who need help. The data-gathering begins as soon as a student enrolls.

Testing the 'underappreciated' role of potential-based goals in college students
Goal achievement scale scores over time, for female (left) and male (right) students. Credit: British Journal of Educational Psychology (2024). DOI: 10.1111/bjep.12728

In his work, Tempelaar focuses most of his analysis on the Achievement Goal Questionnaire (AGQ), which the school uses to measure past performance against potential-based goals. This allowed him to compare students who used such an approach with those who use a more traditional approach.

He found evidence that using potential-based goals can be of benefit to students, particularly those who may be struggling to accurately assess how well they are doing, and ultimately enhance their chances of graduating. He also found evidence that the approach helped some students improve their chances of success by helping them keep focused on what they needed to be doing to get the best out of themselves.

More information: Dirk Tempelaar, The unrecognized potential of potential鈥恇ased achievement goals, British Journal of Educational Psychology (2024).

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Citation: Potential-based goals may hold key to struggling college students' academic success (2024, December 23) retrieved 12 May 2025 from /news/2024-12-potential-based-goals-key-struggling.html
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