← Motivation InterventionsJiesi Guo
Preprint & open materials

Read the paper, reuse the materials

The preprint on PsyArXiv and its supplement, plus everything needed to understand, reuse or adapt the intervention: session protocols, the chatbot configuration and the motivation survey.

Preprint

Can a Brief Online Intervention Raise Adolescents’ STEM Expectancy and Values? A Four-Arm Randomized Trial of Goal Setting and Role Modeling

Jane E. Boyle1,2, Johnmarshall Reeve1,3, Emily Q. Rosenzweig4, Geetanjali Basarkod1, Nicholas Francesco Graziani1, and Jiesi Guo1

1 Institute for Positive Psychology and Education, Australian Catholic University · 2 School of Education, Deakin University · 3 Department of Education, Korea University · 4 Department of Human Development, Teachers College, Columbia University

Abstract

Adolescents’ expectancies and subjective task value beliefs for STEM decline across secondary school, yet few trials have compared different intervention components for enhancing these beliefs within the same trial. This four-arm randomized trial, framed by situated expectancy-value theory, compared brief online interventions focused around goal setting, role modeling, their combination, and an active control. Participants were 855 Year 9 students (401 female, 454 male; M age = 14.68) across six Australian schools (3 urban, 3 rural). Outcomes were expectancy, intrinsic value, utility value, and perceived cost for STEM overall and, in exploratory analyses, for biology, chemistry, and physics. Compared to the control condition, the goal-setting-only condition produced higher post-intervention expectancy (Δ = 0.17, q = .034) and intrinsic value (Δ = 0.18, q = .034) but not utility value. Role modeling alone produced no significant benefit after statistical correction. The combined condition raised expectancy but also perceived cost. No gender interaction was significant. In rural (compared to urban) schools, exploratory analyses showed that, relative to the active control, goal setting alone raised utility value (Δ = 0.46, q < .001) and role modeling alone raised expectancy (Δ = 0.11, q < .001). Exploratory subject-specific analyses showed similar goal-setting gains. Results suggest that a brief, structured online goal-setting sequence can raise adolescents’ immediate STEM expectancy and intrinsic value, warranting longer-term follow-up.

Keywords: STEM motivation; situated expectancy-value theory; goal setting; role models; randomized controlled trial

PDF00 · Preprint on PsyArXivThe full article: introduction, method, results and discussion. Version 2, posted 5 November 2026, CC BY 4.0. Opens PsyArXiv, where the PDF can be downloaded.38 pages · 1.6 MB ↗ PDF01 · Supplemental materialsTables S1–S20 and Figure S1 (CONSORT diagram), cited in the article.30 pages · 1.4 MB
Open materials

Intervention materials and resources

Documents 02–06 describe the trial in enough detail for researchers and schools to understand, reuse or adapt the intervention. They are released under CC BY 4.0.

PDF02 · Design and procedureTrial diagram, condition content and dose, procedure, REDCap instruments, registration and analysis.4 pages · 676 KBPDF03 · Intervention protocolsThe student-facing content of all four conditions, screen by screen: item codes, video links and goal-setting menus.11 pages · 705 KBPDF04 · STEMGuide chatbot specificationChatbot architecture, verbatim prompts, safeguards, and the focus of each condition’s chatbot.2 pages · 404 KBPDF05 · SEVT motivation surveyThe outcome measure: 12 items × 4 domains, response scale, scoring and reliability.2 pages · 431 KBPDF06 · Participating schoolsPartner schools, sample, what participation involved, and acknowledgements.2 pages · 366 KB

Preregistration. The hypotheses and analysis plan were preregistered on the Open Science Framework on 5 June 2026, after data collection and before the research team accessed the data. View the registration and all files on OSF ↗

Data and reuse

What is shared, and how to cite it

Not included, and why

  • Participant data: de-identified data are available from the corresponding author on reasonable request, subject to approval by the Australian Catholic University Human Research Ethics Committee.
  • Chatbot conversations: collected from minors under ethics approval and not shared.
  • Videos: owned by ATSE, TED-Ed, BrainPOP and Venture Guide; linked in Document 03, not redistributed.

Licence

  • Documents 02–06 are released under Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International (CC BY 4.0).
  • Third-party videos remain under their owners’ terms.
  • Adapted survey items should be cited to their original sources, listed in Document 05.

How to cite

Preprint: Boyle, J. E., Reeve, J., Rosenzweig, E. Q., Basarkod, G., Graziani, N. F., & Guo, J. (2026). Can a brief online intervention raise adolescents’ STEM expectancy and values? A four-arm randomized trial of goal setting and role modeling [Preprint]. PsyArXiv. https://doi.org/10.31234/osf.io/gdakp_v2
Open materials: Boyle, J. E., Reeve, J., Basarkod, G., & Guo, J. (2026). Psychosocial RCT on STEM Motivation: Intervention materials and resources [Open materials]. Open Science Framework. https://osf.io/5hjdz
Preregistration: Boyle, J. E., & Guo, J. (2025). Randomized Controlled Trial of Role Modeling and Goal Setting Interventions to Improve Secondary School Students’ STEM Motivation [Preregistration]. Open Science Framework. https://osf.io/5hjdz

Acknowledgements. We thank the participating schools, teachers and students. The role-model videos were produced by the Australian Academy of Technological Sciences and Engineering (ATSE), and we thank Graham Stock for permission to use them. This work was supported by the Australian Research Council (DE230100300, awarded to Jiesi Guo).