The present study examines the achievement goals of university instructors, particularly the structure of such goals, and their relationship to biographic characteristics, other aspects of instructors’ motivation, and teaching quality. Two hundred and fifty-one university instructors (184 without Ph.D., 97 with Ph.D., thereof 51 full professors; 146 males, 92 females) answered a questionnaire measuring achievement goals, self-efficacy, and enthusiasm in altogether 392 courses. Teaching quality was assessed using reports from 9,241 students who were attending these courses. Confirmatory factor analyses revealed mastery, performance approach, performance avoidance, work avoidance, and relational goals as being distinguishable from each other. Distinct relationships were found between different instructors’ achievement goals, and gender, age, and career status as well as self-efficacy and enthusiasm. Hierarchical linear models suggested positive associations of instructors’ mastery goals with teaching quality, while negative associations were indicated for performance avoidance goals and work avoidance goals in relation to teaching quality. Exploratory analyses conducted due to a quite large correlation between performance approach and performance avoidance goals indicated that for university instructors, differentiating performance goals into appearance and normative components might also be adequate. All in all, the study highlights the auspiciousness of the theoretical concept of university instructors’ achievement goals and contributes to making it comprehensively accessible.

Changes in achievement motivation over the first semester of university studies were examined with N = 229 freshmen, who were surveyed twice in the present study. Students' academic self-concepts, achievement goals, and subjective values were chosen as theoretically central components of achievement motivation. The results indicated significant deterioration in achievement motivation over the course of the first semester of university studies, a phenomenon which affected a large proportion of the first-year students. Regression analyses provided evidence that motivation, prior to the start of university studies, and the changes in motivation had incremental validity over measures of prior school-achievement in predicting self-regulated learning, performance in examinations, as well as the intention to change university majors or drop out completely (partially in interaction with prior school-achievement).

Theoretisch kann die Adaptivität von zwei Arten von Reaktionen auf Fehler unterschieden werden: Die affektiv-motivationale Adaptivität (z. B. Aufrechterhaltung von Lernfreude) sowie die Handlungsadaptivität (z. B. Initiierung von passenden Lernhandlungen). Zwei Studien im Schulfach Mathematik mit N = 315 und N = 640 Schülerinnen und Schülern liefern Hinweise auf die Angemessenheit dieses Zwei-Faktoren-Modells: Die beiden Arten von Fehlerreaktionen waren voneinander abgrenzbar, wiesen differentielle Zusammenhänge mit Motivation (Attributionsstil, Fähigkeitsselbstkonzept, Zielorientierungen, implizite Fähigkeitstheorie, subjektiver Wert) sowie Erleben und Verhalten in Lern- und Leistungssituationen (Hilflosigkeit, Anstrengung, selbstreguliertes Lernen) auf und waren in unterschiedlicher Weise von Geschlechtsunterschieden betroffen. Durch die Handlungsadaptivität von Fehlerreaktionen war Lernverhalten besser erklärbar als ausschließlich durch motivationale Tendenzen und Überzeugungen. Dies galt sowohl auf der Ebene habitualisierten Lernverhaltens als auch in Bezug auf eine spezifische Situation, in der Fehler salient waren. Die Berücksichtigung beider Arten von Fehlerreaktionen ermöglicht somit ein adäquateres Verständnis des Umgangs mit und des Lernens aus Fehlern.

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