An investigation of the effect of goal setting group guidance program on 8th-grade students' goal commitment, self-efficacy, and academic procrastination levels

This research aims to examine the effect of a group guidance program on goal setting on students' academic procrastination, academic self-efficacy, and goal commitment levels. The group guidance program was organized according to the principles of a solution-focused therapy approach. A quasi-experimental study was conducted. Within the scope of the research, "Goal Commitment", "Academic Self-Efficacy", "Academic Procrastination" and "Personal Information Form" were applied to 158 students studying in the 8th grade of middle school. Inventory results were evaluated and 20 students with low levels of goal commitment and academic self-efficacy and high levels of academic procrastination were identified. Of the 20 students, 10 students were randomly assigned to the experimental group and 10 students were assigned to the control group. Guidance group work on goal setting was carried out with the students in the study group for 8 weeks. No study was conducted with the students in the control group. At the end of the study, a posttest was administered to the experimental and control groups. Mann Whitney U and Wilcoxon Ranked Signs Test were used to analyze the research data. According to the results of the study, a statistically significant increase was found in the goal commitment and academic self-efficacy levels of the students who participated in the goal-setting program compared to the students who did not participate. It was also concluded that the students in the experimental group showed a statistically significant decrease in academic procrastination levels. The findings were discussed with the related literature.