Within-year changes in children’s intrinsic and extrinsic motivational orientations: Contextual predictors and academic outcomes

The present study was designed to investigate the nature, timing, and correlates of motivational change among a large sample (N = 1051) of third- through eighth-grade students. Analyses of within-year changes in students’ motivational orientations revealed that both intrinsic and extrinsic motivations decreased from fall to spring, with declines in intrinsic motivation especially pronounced for the adolescents and declines in extrinsic motivation especially pronounced for the elementary students. These changes in motivation were explained, in part, by shifts in students’ perceptions of the school goal context. Findings suggested that typical age-related declines in intrinsic motivation may be minimized by a school-wide focus on mastery goals. Finally, the potential academic consequences of students’ motivational orientations were examined with a series of hierarchical multiple regressions. Intrinsic motivation and classroom achievement appeared to influence one another in a positive and reciprocal fashion. Poor classroom performance minimally predicted higher levels of extrinsic motivation, but extrinsic motivation was not a source of low classroom grades.     

Motivational goal orientation, perceptions of biology and physics classroom learning environments, and gender

Researchers have reported persuasive evidence that students?? perceptions of their classroom learning environment account for significant variance in cognitive and affective outcomes (e.g. intrinsic motivation, self-concept, liking for particular subjects and students?? intention to drop out). The study reported in this paper investigated the relationship between students?? perceptions of classroom learning environment and motivational achievement goal orientations towards biology and physics, as well as the influence of gender. Participants (N?=?1538) were high school science students from the north-eastern region of Thailand. Our results suggest that motivational goals are linked to differences in students?? perceptions of learning environment and levels of biology and physics classroom anxiety. We found that females adopted significantly higher levels of mastery and performance approach goals towards biology, while males adopted significantly higher levels of mastery and performance approach goals towards physics. Males adopted significantly higher levels of performance avoidance goals towards both biology and physics. Positive associations emerged between gender and the adoption of specific performance goals, perceived degree of competition in biology and physics classrooms, and levels of biology and physics classroom anxiety. These results suggest that motivational goal orientations and perceptions of learning environment are gender-dependent and domain-specific for the two science content areas.     

Students' perfectionistic profiles: Stability,change, and associations with achievement goal orientations

In this study, we examined what kind of perfectionistic profiles (i.e., different patterns of perfectionistic strivings and concerns) can be identified among general upper‐secondary school students, how stable those profiles are over the school year, and how they are connected with students' motivation (i.e., achievement goal orientations). Four distinct profiles were identified. Students with high strivings and low concerns had their focus mainly on mastery, while students with an opposite profile emphasized performance‐avoidance and work‐avoidance orientations. Students with high strivings and concerns favored both performance‐ and mastery‐related goals, whereas students characterized by low strivings and low concerns did not display a dominant tendency toward any orientation. Perfectionistic profiles were relatively stable over time, with the majority of students reporting similar tendencies across the measurements, and with no extreme changes observed. Some indications of more students displaying less adaptive perfectionistic tendencies by the end of the school year were nevertheless found. Our findings demonstrate not only stability in perfectionistic tendencies, but also their motivational relevance in the academic context where students' goals and performance concerns play an important role.     

Academic goal orientations,multiple goal profiles,and friendship intimacy among early adolescents

This study investigated the relations between early adolescents’ academic motivational orientations and an aspect of quality of friendship: intimacy. Two-hundred and three Jewish-Israeli seventh grade students responded to surveys asking them about their academic achievement goals and about characteristics of their friendships. Variable-centered regression analyses suggested that mastery goals were positively associated with mutual sharing of difficulties, trust, and adaptive social problem-solving between friends, whereas performance-approach goals were negatively associated with intimacy friendship. Moreover, both performance-approach and performance-avoidance goals were associated with mistrust, inconsideration, and tension between friends. A person-centered analysis, employing cluster analysis, suggested that profiles with a higher level of mastery goals relative to both types of performance goals were associated with less mistrust among friends in comparison with profiles with a higher level of performance goals relative to mastery goals. The findings point to the connection between academic motivation and social relationships in school.     

The role of social comparison in students’ perceptions of ability: An enriched view of academic motivation in middle school students

This study addressed notions derived from a model by [Tesser et al., 1984] of self-concept and how it is influenced by social relationships. We were interested in whether the self-evaluation maintenance model (SEM) would allow us to investigate more directly the value component in expectancy–value models of achievement motivation. Using distinctions often made about different motivational orientations, we discovered a three-way interaction between level of mastery orientation (high or low), relevance of math (high or low), and target of rating (self or 7th grade friend) on students’ perception of ability in math. Thus, the SEM model was supported but only for students reporting a low mastery orientation. For them, those who reported math as highly relevant estimated their own ability as significantly higher than their friend’s, whereas those reporting math as less relevant showed no difference in estimates of ability between self or friend. For high mastery oriented students, no differences were found.     

The Effects of Prior Achievement and Group Outcome on Attributions and Affect in Cooperative Tasks

This study explored the effects of prior achievement and group outcome on college students′ attributions and affective reactions to cooperative tasks. Following a group assignment, students responded to a questionnaire measuring their attributions for self, attributions for their group partners, and several affective variables. Results indicated that students′ prior achievement strongly influences their attributions for their partners while group outcome influences self-attributions. Both prior achievement and group outcome influence affective reactions to the assignment. Specifically, high-achieving students may suffer negative motivational consequences in cooperative learning tasks.     

Achievement goal orientation and the critical thinking disposition of college students across academic programmes

This study links achievement goal theory and models of critical thinking by investigating the relationship between motivational goals and the thinking dispositions of college students enrolled in five different academic programmes in Thailand (N = 1336, males = 32.9% and females = 67.1%). We found significant differences in goal orientations and thinking dispositions across academic programmes. For example, nursing students were significantly more mastery goal-oriented and had a higher level of ‘analytical’ thinking disposition than students in business, engineering, education and vocational programmes. Multiple regression analysis found a positive influence of mastery goals and a negative influence of performance avoidance goals on the levels of critical thinking dispositions. We found that critical thinking dispositions are related to goal orientation response patterns and vary with the curricular context.     

Students’ perceptions of parental and teacher academic involvement: Consequences on achievement goals

The present study examined whether students’ perceptions of two major facets of parental and teacher academic involvement (i.e., academic support and academic monitoring), contribute to the process of students’ achievement goals adoption. French junior high-school students completed two questionnaires assessing first their perceptions of parental and teacher academic involvement, and then their achievement goals three months later. Factorial analyses showed that students differentiated parental academic monitoring from parental academic support, while predominantly perceiving their teacher academic involvement as reflecting monitoring. Multilevel modeling analyses indicated that, as expected, students’ perceptions of parental academic support were positively related to mastery goals while unrelated to performance goals. Also as expected, perceived academic monitoring was associated with performance goals, although the findings revealed an equal contribution of perceived parental and teacher involvement. This new insight about the antecedents of students’ achievement goals emphasizes how important is the role of parental and teacher academic socialization.     

Personal and contextual determinants of ethnically diverse female high school students’ patterns of academic help seeking and help avoidance in English and mathematics

This study investigated female high school students’ (N = 293) patterns of help seeking in the domains of English and mathematics. Help seeking was operationalized using both self-report measures of need-contingent help seeking and help avoidance, as well as a behavioral measure of help seeking, namely the number of times students attended after-school tutoring sessions. As predictors of help seeking, the motivational variables of achievement goals, task-value, and expectancy for success were considered, alongside cognitive and metacognitive strategy-use, need for cognition, academic procrastination, and a belief in quick learning. Overall, the motivational variables of expectancy for success, task-value, and mastery goals and the cognitive variables of metacognitive self-regulation and rehearsal were found to significantly predict help seeking in English and math. No discernable effects of grade level or ethnicity on patterns of help seeking were detected. Several subject-level differences, however, were found, suggesting that students’ help-seeking patterns do vary by domain.     

Same mindset,different goals and motivational frameworks: Profiles of mindset-based meaning systems

Growth and fixed mindsets have been linked to distinct effort beliefs, goals, and behaviours, creating a seemingly dichotomous pattern of motivation. Yet, students holding the same mindset are unlikely a homogenous group and may further differ in their motivational patterns. The current study employed a person-centred approach to investigate how mindsets and associated constructs naturally cohered and functioned together to influence student achievement. Data were collected from 535 English students (aged 14–16 years) on mindsets, effort beliefs, achievement goals, perseverance, and self-handicapping, along with their English and maths performance at the end of secondary school. Latent profile analyses revealed four distinct profiles. Across the profiles, students’ mindset co-varied with effort beliefs, mastery goals, perseverance, and self-handicapping, but the relationship between mindsets and performance goals was less straightforward. Two profiles supported the classic growth mindset–mastery goal (Growth-Focused) and fixed mindset–performance goal pairings (Ability-Focused). The other two profiles, however, displayed alternative combinations of mindsets and goals that had not been acknowledged in the past. Specifically, some growth mindset students embraced performance goals alongside mastery goals (Growth-Competitive), and some fixed mindset students did not endorse performance goals (Disengaged). The two growth-oriented profiles consistently performed well, and Growth-Competitive students even outperformed Growth-Focused students in maths. Compared to girls, boys were more often found in Ability-Focused and Disengaged profiles. The results indicate a nuanced set of relations between mindsets and achievement goals, highlighting the dynamic integration of motivational beliefs and goals within individuals.     

Do performance goals promote learning? A pattern analysis of Singapore students’ achievement goals

This study investigated how achievement goals are combined to affect students’ learning. We used a multiple goals perspective, based on mastery (i.e., mastery approach) and performance (including both approach and avoidance components) goals, to examine the achievement goal patterns of 1697 Singapore Secondary 3 students in their math study. Four types of goal clusters emerged from latent class cluster analyses: Diffuse (moderate multiple), Moderate Mastery (moderate mastery/low performance approach and avoidance), Success Oriented (moderate mastery/high performance approach and avoidance), and Approach (high mastery and performance approach/low performance avoidance). Analyses of covariance were conducted to compare these four clusters on eleven cognitive, behavioral, and affective learning outcomes. In general, students in the Success Oriented and Approach groups were higher on self-efficacy, subjective task values, class engagement, homework engagement, time management, and meta-cognitive self-regulation than those in the other two groups. In addition, students in the Approach and Moderate Mastery groups were more likely to make effort when encountering difficulties in learning math, showed lower test anxiety, lower negative affect, and achieved higher scores in math than students in the other two groups. These findings suggest that the goal profile with high mastery and performance approach goals combined with low performance avoidance goals is most beneficial for learning, whereas high performance approach goals, when associated with performance avoidance goals, have some negative effects on affective outcomes. The patterns help to refine distinctions in performance goals, and are discussed in the context of academic achievement in Singapore.     

Students' achievement goal orientations and their behavioral and emotional engagement: Co-examining the role of perceived school goal structures and parent goals during adolescence

The role of perceived school goal structures and parent goals in predicting adolescents' goal orientations and their behavioral and emotional engagement in the classroom was examined in the present study. Surveys were given to a sample of 271 seventh- and ninth-grade students. Path analyses showed that (a) perceived school mastery goal structures and parent mastery goals predicted student mastery goal orientation, perceived school and parent performance goals predicted student performance-avoidance goal orientation, whereas performance-approach orientation was only predicted by perceived parent performance goals; (b) perceived school and parent mastery goals predicted behavioral but not emotional engagement directly as well as indirectly through the mediation of student mastery goal orientation; (c) behavioral and emotional engagement were predicted by student mastery goal orientation. Results are discussed in relation to current theory and their implications for promoting adaptive patterns of learning in the school and the family context.     

Group work as a strategy for attribution retraining in the Asian educational context of Singapore

The aim of this study is to investigate the effectiveness of group work as a strategy for attribution retraining and improving students’ motivational styles. Students were first categorised into one of three motivational styles: learned helplessness, self-worth motivation and mastery orientation. In the intervention procedure, selected students from each of these three categories were subjected to an intervention procedure requiring the students to work in groups, with the emphasis on personal effort as the major contributor to group success. Post-intervention assessment of motivation showed an improvement in the motivation of self-worth motivated students although there was generally a decrease in mastery orientation amongst students in both the control as well as the experimental groups.     

Relations between goals,self‐efficacy,critical thinking and deep processing strategies: a path analysis

Research exploring students’ academic learning has recently amalgamated different motivational theories within one conceptual framework. The inclusion of achievement goals, self‐efficacy, deep processing and critical thinking has been cited in a number of studies. This article discusses two empirical studies that examined these four theoretical orientations from both cross‐sectional (N = 279 participants) and longitudinal (N = 264 participants) perspectives. In particular, achievement goals are hypothesised to exert direct and indirect effects on academic performance via self‐efficacy, study processing strategies and critical thinking. Path analysis was used to test and analyse the hypothesised conceptual models. Results from SPSS 16 and LISREL 8.72 provided good support for the hypothesised structural relationships. Students’ academic performance outcomes, for example, are determined directly by deep processing and work‐avoidance goals. Results from Study 2 indicate mastery goals and self‐efficacy, mastery goals and critical thinking and deep processing and critical thinking operate in a reciprocal manner. In general, the evidence established from both studies contributes theoretically and methodologically.     

Relationships among perceived competence,intrinsic value and mastery goal orientation in English and maths

A large and burgeoning literature has established that mastery goal orientations yield positive cognitive and behavioural educational outcomes. Less research has focused on the psychological antecedents of adopting mastery goals. The present study draws upon prominent psychological theories of ac motivation, specifically the expectancy-value theory of Eccles, Wigfield and colleagues (Wigfield and Eccles 2002), to explore possible antecedents of students’ mastery goals. Based on this theoretical framework, our study focused on children’s perceptions of their competencies in English and maths and how these related to intrinsic value and mastery goals for English and maths. Questionnaires were used to gather data about Year 6 (N=60) participants’ perceived competence, intrinsic value and mastery goal orientation, and correlational analyses established the direction and strength of the relationships between the perceptions. Participants were targeted for follow-up interviews (n=17) according to a matrix of low and high competence perceptions and mastery goals, with students selected from within each of six focal groups. Interview responses were reported according to emergent themes, from which we describe how the constructs under consideration relate to one another and highlight implications for educational practice.     

Understanding motivational structures that differentially predict engagement and achievement in middle school science

Middle school has been documented as the period in which a drop in students’ science interest and achievement occurs. This trend indicates a lack of motivation for learning science; however, little is known about how different aspects of motivation interact with student engagement and science learning outcomes. This study examines the relationships among motivational factors, engagement, and achievement in middle school science (grades 6–8). Data were obtained from middle school students in the United States (N?=?2094). The theoretical relationships among motivational constructs, including self-efficacy, and three types of goal orientations (mastery, performance approach, and performance avoid) were tested. The results showed that motivation is best modeled as distinct intrinsic and extrinsic factors; lending evidence that external, performance based goal orientations factor separately from self-efficacy and an internal, mastery based goal orientation. Second, a model was tested to examine how engagement mediated the relationships between intrinsic and extrinsic motivational factors and science achievement. Engagement mediated the relationship between intrinsic motivation and science achievement, whereas extrinsic motivation had no relationship with engagement and science achievement. Implications for how classroom practice and educational policy emphasize different student motivations, and in turn, can support or hinder students’ science learning are discussed.     

The Conditional and Interaction Effects of Epistemological Beliefs on the Self-Regulated Learning of College Students: Motivational Strategies

This study examines the conditional and interaction effects of each of four dimensions of the epistemological beliefs of college students regarding the ability to learn, the speed of learning, the structure of knowledge, and the stability of knowledge on six measures of the motivational components of self-regulated learning strategies (intrinsic goal orientations, extrinisic goal orientation, task value, self-efficacy, control of learning and test anxiety). Students with more sophisticated beliefs about the nature of knowledge and learning were more likely than their peers to use educationally productive motivational strategies in their learning. Beliefs about one’s ability to learn and the structure of knowledge had the most significant and substantial effects on students’ use of self-regulated motivational strategies. Although a student’s belief about the stability of knowledge by itself had a statistically significant effect on only one motivational strategy, this belief did have four statistically significant interaction effects with beliefs about ability to learn and the structure of knowledge. Implications of these findings for theory, research, policy and practice are examined.     

The relationship between cellphone use and achievement goals in junior high school students: A cross‐lagged analysis

The purpose of this study was to explore the relationship between cellphone use and achievement goals in junior high school students. The participants were 282 students randomly selected from a secondary school in Xi'an, China. The Frequency of Cellphone Use Questionnaire and the Achievement Goal Questionnaire were used as measurement tools. The results showed that cellphone use at Time 1 (T1) was significantly associated with performance goals orientation and with mastery goals orientation at both times; cellphone use at Time 2 (T2) was not correlated with performance goals orientation or mastery goals orientation at T1. The cross‐lagged analysis showed a negative causal relationship between the frequency of cellphone use and mastery goals but no causal relationship between the frequency of cellphone use and performance goals. These results may be helpful for guiding adolescents to reduce cellphone use, pay attention to the mastery of knowledge, and establish mastery goals.     

Perceived competence and autonomy as moderators of the effects of achievement goal orientations

The primary purpose of this study was to investigate the roles of two moderators – perceived competence and perceived autonomy – in the relationships of achievement goal orientations with a broad range of learning‐related variables, including interest, effort, learning strategy use and academic achievement. Perceived competence and autonomy played roles as moderators by strengthening the positive effects of a mastery goal pursuit on outcome measures of adaptive use of learning strategies and effort, respectively. However, no moderating role of either perceived competence or perceived autonomy was found for the effect of a performance‐approach and performance‐avoidance goal pursuit. In addition, perceived competence played a significant role in determining the level of academic achievement in the context of multiple‐goal pursuit. For students with high perceived competence, the adoption of high performance‐approach goals resulted in a higher level of achievement regardless of the levels of mastery goals. In contrast, students with low perceived competence showed the highest achievement when high performance‐approach goals are paired with low mastery goals.     

The role of goal orientations and goal structures in explaining classroom social and affective characteristics

Examining motivational variables may prove to be particularly fruitful towards our understanding of classroom processes, student behaviors and school outcomes. The present study examined the role of personal and contextual goals (goals and goal structures) towards explaining social relationships (peer, teacher–student and home–school). 1493 fifth and sixth grade primary school students (10 to 12 years of age) from different areas of Greece formed a representative sample. Questionnaires were administered assessing students' goal orientations, goal structures and classroom relationships. The data were analyzed using latent variable modeling. Mastery goal structures had significant effects on positive school relationships such as student relations, teacher–student relations, peer inclusion, and peer conflict (the latter two reversely coded). Performance goal structures exerted negative or null effects on the same processes, demonstrating their negative propensities. In addition, the effects of mastery goal structures were partially mediated by the effects of personal mastery goals with regard to teacher–student relations with the former exerting both direct and indirect effects. On the contrary, the negative effects of performance goal structures were not buffered by the presence of high levels of personal performance goals. The findings have significant implications for educational practice in terms of the importance of classroom contexts as predictors of classroom relatedness specifically where mastery goals are concerned.