Evidence for Learning: Aspiration interventions

Aspirations are what children and young people hope to achieve for themselves in the future. Raising aspirations is often believed to be an effective way to motivate students to work harder so as to achieve the steps necessary for later success.

Australasian-based studies examining the impact of aspiration interventions on student achievement are yet to be conducted/​published. However, a few studies have examined growing aspirational thinking as one of several intervention outcomes of community engagement programs in Australia and New Zealand that focus on family engagement and building family aspirations.

One study examined the influencers of aspirational thinking around higher education among young people from low socio-economic backgrounds (Harris, 2012). It employed an intervention aimed at increasing young people’s desire to undertake post-secondary education, involving role models and the provision of accurate information about future study and career pathways. The study demonstrated the importance of providing young people with access to academically successful role models from similar backgrounds that may be absent from family and peer networks (Harris, 2012).

The other study focused on personal autonomy/​motivation, giving young people with challenging and risky behaviours (n=5) resources to aid them with setting goals and plans for the future. While three of the participants experienced positive results, studies on a larger scale are needed in order to make more robust conclusions on the program’s effectiveness (Carroll, Ashman, Bower & Hemingway, 2013).