What if reading is easy but unimportant? How students’ patterns of affirming and undermining motivation for reading information texts predict different reading outcomes

Many affirming and undermining motivational constructs affect students as they read information texts, but few researchers have explored how these motivations are patterned within students. In this study we used cluster analysis to classify middle school students (n = 1134) based on their patterns of self-efficacy, perceived difficulty, value, and devalue for reading school information texts. We then compared how the patterns predicted students’ language arts grades, science information text comprehension, and dedication to reading school information texts. We found and validated a four-cluster solution. One cluster included a pattern of high affirming and low undermining motivations, and another included low affirming and high undermining motivations. Students with these patterns earned the highest and lowest scores, respectively, on all outcomes. A third pattern showed high self-efficacy/low difficulty with low value/high devalue, and a fourth showed moderate levels of all four motivational constructs. Students with the high efficacy and devalue pattern showed high information text comprehension but relatively low dedication. Students with the moderate pattern showed high dedication but low initial information text comprehension. Students with these two patterns earned similar grades. We discuss the implications of our findings for motivation theories and for school instruction that involves information text reading.     

运用归因理论激发小学生的成就动机

归因理论对于学校教育具有重大的指导意义.它可以帮助教师寻找到教育的契机和方法.学生对学习结果的归因,直接影响其学习信心和对前途的期待.心理学研究表明,人们的归因倾向是可以改变的,教师可结合归因训练,并利用课堂教学,运用教育与引导的方法,帮助学生作出正确、积极的归因,激发学生的成就动机.     

Examining the stability of achievement goal orientation

We examined stability and change in students’ achievement goal orientations over varying tasks. Two naturalistic longitudinal studies were conducted in undergraduate courses. Students completed self-reports designed to measure their achievement goals. Achievement goals were measured four times: prior to two assignments and two exams. Four complementary analytic techniques were used to examine goal stability: differential continuity, mean-level change, individual-level change, and profile consistency. Results across both studies provide evidence for stability and change across tasks in achievement goal orientation, and comparisons made between similar and different tasks resulted in similar levels of change. Implications for theory and research in achievement goal orientation are discussed.     

How are upper secondary school students’ expectancy-value profiles associated with achievement and university STEM major? A cross-domain comparison

Expectancy-value theory (Eccles, 2009) posits that students’ relative expectancies and values across domains inform their academic choices. Students should therefore be more likely to choose a STEM major if they have higher expectancies and values in STEM domains compared with other domains. Accordingly, this study aimed to explore how upper secondary school students’ profiles in expectancy-value beliefs in math and English are related to concurrent achievement and university major choice. Data on expectancies and values in math and English were collected from 2153 German students in their last school year, along with their concurrent math and English achievement and their university major 2 years later. Latent profile analyses revealed four distinct expectancy-value profiles characterized as Low Math/High English, Moderate Math/Moderate English, High Math/Low English, and High Math/High English. Students’ gender, socioeconomic status, and type of school were meaningfully associated with profile membership. For instance, female students were overrepresented in the Low Math/High English profile compared with other profiles. Students in the four profiles also differed in their math and English achievement. These differences were mostly in line with students’ expectancies and values in the respective domain, but some differences suggested that intraindividual cross-domain comparison processes were also at play. Finally, profile membership predicted students’ choice of a STEM major over and above demographic characteristics and achievement. Students in the High Math/Low English profile were most likely to choose a STEM major. These findings support the importance of considering intraindividual comparisons of expectancies and values for students’ achievement-related behavior and choices.     

学业效能在成就目标与情感反应关系中的中介作用

本研究采用问卷调查法探索学业效能在成就目标与情感反应关系中的中介作用,成就目标取向采用三维结构即掌握目标,成绩接近目标和成绩回避目标。结果表明：学业效能在不同目标取向和情感反应间的中介作用不一致。     

论成绩目标对学生的影响

成就目标理论的发展过程——从简单的掌握目标观到复杂的多目标观,该文通过追踪有关成绩接近目标作用的讨论,阐述了当今研究者对成就目标动力学的认识,接着分析了掌握目标观和多目标观争论的原因,最后提出在今后的研究中应当把量的研究和质的研究结合起来,应当进一步研究个人成就目标和课堂目标对学生的独特影响,应当进一步研究成就目标在不同文化、不同课堂环境中对不同学生的影响。     

Agency as a fourth aspect of students’ engagement during learning activities

While a consensus has emerged to characterize student engagement during learning activities as a three-component construct featuring behavioral, emotional, and cognitive aspects, we propose adding agentic engagement as an important new aspect, which we define as students’ constructive contribution into the flow of the instruction they receive. High school students (237 females, 128 males) from Taiwan completed surveys of their classroom motivation and the four hypothesized aspects of engagement while grades were obtained at the end of the semester. Structural equation modeling analyses showed that agentic engagement was both a distinct and an important construct, one that was associated with students’ constructive motivation, related to each of the other three aspects of engagement, and predicted independent variance in achievement. The discussion highlights the important, though currently neglected, ways that students contribute constructively into the flow of the instruction they receive, as by personalizing it and by enhancing both the lesson and the conditions under which they learn.     

Rethinking teachers’ goal orientations: Conceptual and methodological enhancements

The article provides a theoretical extension of the goal orientation approach for teaching by proposing three different competence facets of learning goals and four types of addressees for performance approach and avoidance goals. On the basis of responses from 495 teacher trainees and 224 in-service teachers, the development and validation of an advanced goal orientation measure is presented. Internal consistencies of the goal dimensions were good, and confirmatory factor analyses verified the postulated model for teacher trainees and in-service teachers. In both groups, learning goal orientation positively predicted self-efficacy for teaching and perceived benefits of help-seeking. Performance approach goals positively predicted self-efficacy for teaching and performance avoidance goals negatively predicted self-efficacy for teaching and positively predicted perceived threats of help-seeking. The use of goal orientation facets provided a more thorough analysis of the predictions regarding perceptions of help-seeking. Results supported the convergent and divergent validity of the new measure.     

成就目标理论研究综述

成就目标理论作为解释成就动机行为的社会认知模式之一,一直受到国内外心理研究的极大重视。本文在详尽介绍当代成就动机研究中三个重要的概念:成就目标理论、潜在能力理论和能力自我知觉以及最近提出的2×2成就目标结构的基础上,进一步引入了一个把成就目标与8种完全分离的成就情绪联系起来的理论模型,从而深化了成就目标理论的研究。     

Achievement goals and classroom goal structures: Do they need to match?

Abstract

It is often assumed that students’ personal achievement goals are most beneficial when they match the goal structures of the classroom, but interaction between achievement goals and goal structures is not well researched. In this study, we aim at providing a nuanced picture of the direct, interaction, and nonlinear effects of achievement goals and goal structures on test performance and autonomous motivation. We used multiple linear regressions, including interaction and quadratic terms, in combination with response surface methodology to analyze questionnaire data from students in Grades 6-10. We found no evidence for a general match effect, and only weak indications of interactions between achievement goals and goal structures. Thus, the match between classroom goal structures and students’ personal goals may be less important for students’ motivation and achievement than previously assumed. Still, based on our results we recommend a focus on mastery structures in the classroom.     

Why do students strive to outperform classmates? Unpacking their reasons for pursuing performance goals

Achievement goal theory has evolved since introduced about 40 years ago. One of its newer variants is the goal complex model. It assumes that each achievement goal (i.e., performance or mastery) can be pursued for many reasons and, more provocatively, that the goal’s effects depend partly on why it is pursued. Clearly, the first task for this area is to identify likely goal pursuit reasons, develop and validate a measure of reasons, and chart the influence of those reasons. Progress remains limited, however. Nearly all studies have considered only a small set of reasons suggested predominantly by self-determination theory, overlooking several other plausible reasons. Nor is there an established measure of goal pursuit reasons. To overcome those limitations, the current study validated and tested a new goal complex measure that includes several additional goal pursuit reasons, both personal (e.g., pride) and social (e.g., to make close others proud, or to help or serve others) in nature. Two culturally distinct samples of university students – one from the USA (n = 400), the other from Thailand (n = 404) – completed the measure with performance goals in mind and then reported a diverse array of educational outcomes. Their results converge for the most part. In each sample, the new measure proved to have good structural validity and psychometric properties. Several goal complexes, including the new social ones, showed unique and often desirable relationships with outcomes, too. The findings raise several research directions and implications for achievement goal theory.     

初中生学业延迟满足与成就目标定向的关系研究

学业延迟满足是指学生在学习情境中甘愿为更有价值的长远结果而放弃即时满足的抉择倾向,以及在等待过程中展示出的自我控制和调节能力。通过调查分析,本研究探讨了初中生学业延迟满足与成就目标定向的关系。主要研究结果如下：不同学业延迟满足能力水平的初中生的成就目标存在显著差异;掌握接近目标和掌握回避目标对学业延迟满足有促进作用,而成绩回避目标对学业延迟满足有负向影响,其中掌握接近目标对学业延迟满足的正向预测作用最大。     

The role of self-efficacy, task value, and achievement goals in predicting learning strategies, task disengagement, peer relationship, and achievement outcome

Adopting a combination of expectancy-value and achievement goal theories, this study examined the role of self-efficacy, task value, and achievement goals in students’ learning strategies, task disengagement, peer relationship, and English achievement outcome. A sample of 1475 Year-9 students participated in the study. A structural equation model showed that while task value predicted only mastery goals, self-efficacy predicted each of the three types of achievement goal. Mastery and performance-approach goals were both positive predictors of deep learning and peer relationship. Mastery goals were also negatively associated with task disengagement and positively associated with surface learning. In contrast, performance-avoidance goals were a positive predictor of surface learning and task disengagement but a negative predictor of peer relationship. On the whole, these findings suggest that, like mastery goals, performance-approach goals can generate adaptive outcomes.