Goal Orientation Theory

EDU 330: Educational Psychology

Daniel Moos, PhD

Goal Orientation: Introduction

“Whereas other motivational theories (e.g., attribution theory) examine students' beliefs about

their successes and failures, goal orientation theory examines the reasons why students engage in

their academic work.”

Goal Orientation: Mastery

Mastery: Goal is to truly understand or master the task at hand; students who are mastery-oriented are:

1.Interested in self-improvement

2.Tend to compare their current level of achievement to their own prior achievementApproach: Interested in truly mastering an academic taskAvoidance: Interested in avoiding misunderstanding the task

Goal Orientation: PerformancePerformance: Goal is to demonstrate their ability compared to others. Students who are performance-oriented:

1.Are interested in competition

2.Are interested in demonstrating their competence, and outperforming others

3.Tend to use other students as points of comparison, rather than themselves.Approach: Interested in demonstrating that they are more competent than other students (i.e., have more ability than othersAvoidance: Interested in avoiding appearing incompetent or stupid

Goal Orientation: Mastery/Performance

• Can hold multiple goals simultaneously• Individual differences• Gender differences?

Goal Orientation: Mastery/Performance Brady’s goal in Spanish class is to become fluent in the language

because he is interested in the language and wants to be able to converse with others and read Spanish literature.

Mastery approach Allie’s goal in Science class is to avoid appearing incompetent

Performance avoid Sam’s goal in Math class is to demonstrate to his teacher and to

other students that he is the best in the class

Performance approach Amanda’s goal in Language Arts class is to avoid misunderstanding

the grammatical lessons presented by her teacher.

Mastery avoid

Goal Orientation: Effect on learning (I)

Performance-avoidance goals result in few benefits

Performance-approach goals may have adaptive value (positively associated with task value, academic self-concept, effort, and achievement)

• Students who adopt higher levels of performance-approach goals more likely to earn a higher grade• BUT: they also have less interest by the end of the semester

• Students who adopt mastery goals tend to demonstrate increased interest.

• Results suggest that it could be that performance-approach and mastery goals serve two ends for the student—achievement and interest.

• Others have questioned the benefits of encouraging performance-approach goals• If students are encouraged to evaluate their performance

against norms, then inevitably some will be left out. For every student who achieves above the norm, one falls below it.

Goal Orientation: Effect on learning (II)

What classrooms practices do you think promote performance goals?

(avoidance/approach)

Mastery goals?

(avoidance/approach)

Goal Orientation: Effect on learning (III)