Self-regulated learning in high-achieving students: Relations to advanced reasoning, achievement goals, and gender.

The relation between achievement and self-regulated learning (SRL) is more complex than originally believed. In this study, 222 seventh-grade students (53% boys) described their use of SRL strategies and rated their achievement goals (mastery and performance). Students were high achievers, performing at or above the 97th percentile on an achievement test. However, they ranged widely in their use of SRL strategies, suggesting that SRL strategies are not necessary for high achievement. Reasons for variation in SRL were examined. Advanced reasoning was not related to SRL. Performance goal orientation was related to SRL only in conjunction with mastery goal orientation. Mastery goal orientation and gender were significantly related to SRL. As mastery goals increased, so did the use of SRL strategies. Girls reported greater use of SRL strategies (a) involving personal regulation or optimizing the environment and (b) when completing difficult homework or engaged in reading and writing. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

Motivation and cheating during early adolescence.

The relations of motivational variables to self-reported cheating behaviors and beliefs in science were examined in a sample of early adolescents. It was hypothesized that cheating and beliefs in the acceptability of cheating would be more likely when students perceived an emphasis on performance and extrinsic incentives rather than on mastery and improvement. Results indicated that students who reported cheating in science perceived their classrooms as being extrinsically focused and perceived their schools as being focused on performance and ability. Students who believed in the acceptability of cheating also reported personal extrinsic goals and a perceived emphasis on extrinsic factors in class. Students who reported cheating also worried about school. The reported use of deep cognitive strategies was related negatively and the use of self-handicapping strategies was related positively to cheating beliefs and behaviors. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

Evidence of social comparison in mastery goals in natural academic settings.

Proponents of achievement goal theory typically posit social comparison to be associated with performance goals but not with mastery goals (C. Ames, 1992). Contrary to this postulate, there is some evidence that individuals who are experimentally induced to adopt mastery goals may also use social comparison (e.g., R. Butler, 1992). However, such laboratory studies do not take into account the reality of the classroom, where evidence proves that students can endorse both types of goals. This leaves open the question of whether mastery goals are associated with social comparison, even after controlling for performance goals. The purpose of this study was to examine this question. French junior high school students completed a self-report survey assessing their personal achievement goals (mastery goals, performance-approach goals, and performance-avoidance goals) and their social comparison orientation (SCO) at school. Findings indicated that both types of achievement goals were positively associated with students' SCO. Moreover, mastery goals were still related to SCO even after controlling for performance goals. Implications of the interplay between achievement goals and social comparison theories are discussed. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

Interplay between personal goals and classroom goal structures in predicting student outcomes: A multilevel analysis of person-context interactions.

This study examined cross-level interactions between personal goals and classroom goal structures, as well as their additive contributions to predicting math achievement, engagement, interest, effort withdrawal, and avoidance coping, using a sample of 3,943 Grade 5 students from 130 classrooms. Results of hierarchical linear modeling showed that classroom performance goal structures exacerbated (a) the negative association between personal performance-avoidance goals and engagement and (b) the positive relations of personal performance-avoidance goals to effort withdrawal and avoidance coping. Moreover, both classroom performance goal structures and personal performance-avoidance goals had maladaptive patterns of relations to outcomes at their respective levels of analysis, whereas classroom mastery goal structures and personal mastery goals showed adaptive relations. Our findings underscore the importance of a multilevel interactionist perspective in understanding achievement motivation and making recommendations for educational practices. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

An integrative cultural view of achievement motivation: Parental and classroom predictors of children's goal orientations when learning mathematics in Korea.

Our goal was to identify how students' perceptions of their parents shape the kind and degree of motivational goal orientations that they adopt in their mathematics classroom, broadening the application of achievement goal orientation theory and self-determination theory to students in Korea. Two groups of students participated, one from a middle school located in a large metropolitan area and the other from a small city high school. Multisample path analysis of data from both groups revealed that Korean students' different goal orientations were predicted by their perceptions of parental goals and motivating styles and by their perceptions of classroom goal structures, mediated by different types of self-regulated motivations. Particularly interesting was the finding that Korean students' degree of mastery goal adoption was associated mostly with identified regulation, not with intrinsic motivation, and predicted by their perceptions of their parents' motivating styles, both autonomy supportive and controlling, in addition to perceptions of parents' mastery goals. Perceptions of classroom goals were stronger predictors of students' own goals than were perceptions of parents' goals and motivating styles. We offer an integration of self-determination theory and achievement goal theory. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

Perceived Achievement Goal Structure and College Student Help Seeking.

Two studies examined associations between college students' help seeking and perceptions of their classes' achievement goal structure. Study 1 established that students' help seeking (N = 883 in 6 chemistry classes) could be parsimoniously described by distinct approach (intentions to seek autonomous help from teachers) and avoidance patterns (threat, avoidance intentions, seeking expedient help). In Study 2, after controlling for students' personal achievement goal orientations (N = 852 in 13 psychology classes), within-class differences in perceived class emphasis on mastery positively predicted help-seeking approach and negatively predicted help-seeking avoidance patterns, whereas perceived class emphasis on performance-avoid goals positively predicted help-seeking avoidance. Students in classes with greater perceived emphasis on performance-avoid goals had higher levels of help-seeking avoidance patterns. Results complement previous research on help seeking and achievement goals with younger learners and provide support for the role of classroom achievement goal structure in student motivation and performance. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

Advancing Achievement Goal Theory: Using Goal Structures and Goal Orientations to Predict Students' Motivation, Cognition, and Achievement.

The objective of this study was to investigate how different components of achievement goal theory were related to each other and to students' motivation, cognitive engagement, and achievement in mathematics. Junior high school students (N=525) completed a self-report survey that assessed their perceived classroom goal structures; personal goal orientations: and a collection of outcomes that included persistence, procrastination, choice, their use of cognitive and metacognitive learning strategies, and mathematics grade. Results indicate that mastery structure and mastery orientation were related to adaptive outcomes in all areas. The patterns of relations for performance-approach goal structure, and for performance-approach and performance-avoidance goal orientations were less uniform across outcomes. Implications for achievement goal theory and future research are discussed. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

A pattern analysis of students' achievement goals.

Cluster analysis procedures were used to classify 257 5th- and 6th-grade students on basis of their mastery, ego, and work-avoidant goal orientations. The results identified 3 clusters of students with different achievement profiles in science. Students who exhibited a pattern in which mastery goals were stronger than the other 2 goals, showed the most positive achievement profile. In contrast, students who were high on both mastery and ego goals did not perform as well academically; students low on both mastery and ego goals showed the most negative achievement profile. Additional analyses revealed that the cluster analysis provided a more distinctive and internally consistent set of findings than did pattern analyses that were based on median split procedures. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

Does math self-efficacy mediate the effect of the perceived classroom environment on standardized math test performance?

We examined the effect of the perceived classroom environment on math self-efficacy and the effect of math self-efficacy on standardized math test performance. Upper elementary school students (N = 1,163) provided self-reports of their perceived math self-efficacy and the degree to which their math classroom environment was mastery oriented, challenging, and caring. Individual student scores on the California Standards Test for Mathematics were also collected. A series of 2-level models revealed that students who perceived their classroom environments as more caring, challenging, and mastery oriented had significantly higher levels of math self-efficacy, and higher levels of math self-efficacy positively predicted math performance. Analysis of the indirect effects of classroom variables on math performance indicated a small significant mediating effect of self-efficacy. Implications for research on self-efficacy and the perceived classroom environment are discussed. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

Interacting effects of goal setting and self- or other-referenced feedback on children's development of self-efficacy and cognitive skill within the Taiwanese classroom.

Eighty-four fourth-grade Taiwanese children were randomly assigned to 1 of 4 treatment groups: goal setting with self-referenced feedback, goal setting with social-referenced feedback, self-referenced feedback only, and social-referenced feedback only. Students then participated in a regular classroom unit of instruction on fractions. Children in the self-referenced groups demonstrated significantly higher fraction skill and self-efficacy than did children in the social-referenced groups; goal setting had no effect. There was a deterioration of social-referenced students' willingness to perform the task over multiple sessions, with this group setting significantly lower goals over time. In addition, a significant correlation between students' mastery and performance goal orientation scores was obtained, suggesting a cultural influence on performance. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

The Dilemma of Performance-Approach Goals: The Use of Multiple Goal Contexts to Promote Students' Motivation and Learning.

The study examines the effects of a quasi-experimental classroom goal condition (mastery, performance-approach, combined mastery/performance-approach) and entering personal goal orientations on motivation, emotional well-being, help seeking, cognitive engagement, and achievement for 237 upper elementary students during a 5-week math unit emphasizing small groups. The classroom goal condition had a significant effect on help seeking and achievement, with the combined condition showing the most beneficial pattern. Personal mastery goals were beneficial for 11 of 12 outcomes including achievement; personal performance-approach goals were detrimental for achievement and test anxiety and unrelated to the remaining outcomes. The effect of the classroom goal condition did not vary on the basis of entering personal goal orientations. Implications for the current achievement goal theory debate regarding multiple goals are discussed. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

Predictors of Academic Self-Handicapping and Achievement: Examining Achievement Goals, Classroom Goal Structures, and Culture.

The purposes of this study were to examine the predictors and achievement consequences of academic self-handicapping and to explore cultural variations in the pursuit and effects of performance goals and perceived classroom performance goal structures. Data were collected in 2 consecutive academic years from a diverse sample of high school students (N=675). Performance-avoidance and classroom performance goal structure were positively associated with self-handicapping, whereas performance-approach goals negatively predicted handicapping. Self-handicapping was negatively associated with achievement in English. Cultural differences in the effects of performance goals on achievement and in the effects of classroom performance goal structure on the subsequent adoption of personal performance goals were found. Implications for efforts to alter classroom goal structures are discussed. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

Classrooms: Goals, structures, and student motivation.

Examines the classroom learning environment in relation to achievement goal theory of motivation. Classroom structures are described in terms of how they make different types of achievement goals salient and as a consequence elicit qualitatively different patterns of motivation. Task, evaluation and recognition, and authority dimensions of classrooms are presented as examples of structures that can influence children's orientation toward different achievement goals. Central to the thesis of this article is a perspective that argues for an identification of classroom structures that can contribute to a mastery orientation, a systematic analysis of these structures, and a determination of how these structures relate to each other. The ways in which interventions must address the independency among these structures are discussed in terms of how they influence student motivation. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

Goal congruence in project teams: Does the fit between members' personal mastery and performance goals matter?

Research on team goals rarely considers the impact of congruence in perceptions of personal goals of self versus other members. In this study of 324 members of 64 short-term project teams, polynomial regression analysis was used to explore how congruence in personal and perceived team mastery and performance goals affected individual outcomes. Results indicated that congruence in perceived performance goals elicited greater individual satisfaction and contributions, regardless of goal strength (i.e., high or low personal performance goals). Conversely, perceived team mastery goals had a greater effect on individual outcomes than did perceived congruence in self- other mastery goals. Congruent self-actual team goals showed weaker but similar relationships to individual outcomes, but contrary to hypotheses, this effect was not mediated by congruence in perceived self-other goals. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

What young people want to know when: Effects of mastery and ability goals on interest in different kinds of social comparisons.

Integrating developments in social comparison and achievement theories suggested that ability goals will promote ability-appraisal and self-serving functions of social comparison and that mastery goals will enhance interest in social comparisons that can promote learning. A novel design let Ss choose between different kinds of social information. 78 Israeli 6th graders performed a task in a mastery of ability goal condition and then examined tables providing social information relevant to learning about the task, to normative ability assessment, or to identifying their personal style. As predicted, mastery Ss spent longer at the task table than ability Ss, who spent longer at the normative table, especially if they had performed well. Goal conditions also affected relations between time at the normative table and perceived competence and interest in the task. Implications of this framework and methodology for social comparison theory are discussed. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

Changes in Achievement Goal Orientations, Perceived Academic Competence, and Grades across the Transition to Middle-Level Schools

Goal orientation theory was used to examine changes in student motivation during the transition from elementary to middle school. Surveys were given to 341 students in the fifth grade in elementary and again in sixth grade in middle school. Students were more oriented to task goals (wanting to improve their competency), perceived a greater emphasis on task goals during instruction, and felt more academically competent in fifth grade in elementary school than in sixth grade in middle school. They perceived a greater emphasis on performance goals (an emphasis on relative ability and right answers) in middle school than in elementary school. Several interactions emerged between year (fifth grade, sixth grade), and both student level of ability (higher, lower, based on standardized achievement tests) and subject domain (math, English).     

Perceptions of classroom environment, achievement goals, and achievement outcomes.

Two studies examined the relationship between undergraduates' perceptions of their classroom environment, their adoption of achievement goals for the course, and their graded performance and intrinsic motivation. Results revealed a distinct antecedent profile for each goal in the trichotomous framework: Mastery goals were linked to the presence of lecture engagement and the absence of an evaluation focus and harsh evaluation, performance-approach goals were linked to the presence of evaluation focus, and performance-avoidance goals were linked to the presence of evaluation focus and harsh evaluation. When the perceived classroom environment and achievement goal variables were tested together as predictors of graded performance and intrinsic motivation, the results clearly demonstrated that the influence of the perceived classroom environment on these outcomes measures was indirect; the perceived classroom environment influenced achievement goal adoption, and achievement goal adoption, in turn, directly influenced graded performance and intrinsic motivation. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

The classroom environment and students' reports of avoidance strategies in mathematics: A multimethod study.

The relation between the learning environment (e.g., students' perceptions of the classroom goal structure and teachers' instructional discourse) and students' reported use of avoidance strategies (self-handicapping, avoidance of help seeking) and preference to avoid novelty in mathematics was examined. Quantitative analyses indicated that students' reports of avoidance behaviors varied significantly among classrooms. A perceived emphasis on mastery goals in the classroom was positively related to lower reports of avoidance. Qualitative analyses revealed that teachers in high-mastery/low-avoidance and low-mastery/high-avoidance classrooms used distinctively different patterns of instructional and motivational discourse. High incidence of motivational support was uniquely characteristic of high-mastery/ low-avoidance classrooms, suggesting that mastery goals may include an affective component. Implications of the results for both theory and practice are discussed. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

Systems of student and teacher motivation: Toward a qualitative definition.

Defines 3 systems of motivation: ability-evaluative, task mastery, and moral responsibility. Implicit in each motivation system is a value orientation, and these values are shared by students and teachers. The qualitative perspective relates to distinct networks of cognitions, involving goals and values, attributions, and strategy beliefs. Student motivation is characterized by showing how each motivational system can be elicited by a competitive, cooperative, or individualistic goal structure. Teacher motivation is characterized by showing how each system evolves from specific teacher goal orientations. Different goals that affect student and teacher motivation are implicit in the goal structure of the classroom and in the teacher's belief system. (109 ref) (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

Predictors and consequences of achievement goals in the college classroom: Maintaining interest and making the grade.

The authors investigated personality predictors of achievement goals in an introductory psychology class, as well as the consequences of these goals for the motivation and performance of 311 undergraduates. Two dimensions of achievement motivation (workmastery and competitive orientations; J. T. Spence & R. L. Helmreich, 1983) predicted the goals endorsed. Individuals high in workmastery were more likely to adopt mastery goals and less likely to adopt work avoidance goals, whereas competitive individuals were more likely to endorse performance and work avoidance goals. Students adopting mastery goals were more interested in the class, but students adopting performance goals achieved higher levels of performance. These results suggest that both mastery and performance goals can lead to important positive outcomes in college classes. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)