Educational and Personal Dimensions of Learning- and Grade-Oriented Students

Abstract

Two studies exploring educational and personal differences between learning- and grade-oriented students are reported. Learning-oriented students were more emotionally stable, trusting, imaginative, forthright, placid, self-sufficient, and relaxed than their grade-oriented counterparts. Learning-oriented students also had better study habits, less debilitating test anxiety, and reported higher collaborative and participative learning styles. Implications of these findings were drawn for educational and research practices in higher education.

College Students' Academic Beliefs and Their Motives for Communicating With Their Instructor

“…Third, although it was beyond the scope of this investigation, the current study did not explore antecedents or possible triggers of students' academic beliefs. According to Eison (1982), students' perspectives toward education are relatively stable throughout their academic experiences, yet it is possible that early interventions targeted at K-12 classrooms may encourage students to adopt a learning orientation rather than a grade orientation toward school. Therefore, scholars should continue to consider ways to address these limitations in future research.…”

“…LO students have higher levels of self-motivation (Beck, Rorrer-Woody, & Pierce, 1991), experience less anxiety about tests and assignments (Eison, 1982), possess more effective study skills (Beck et al, 1991), and are more likely to adopt an internal locus of control in the classroom than their GO counterparts (Shell & Husman, 2008). Additionally, GO students perform worse on exams and quizzes, report lower affect toward their instructors, and tend to have a lower overall GPA in college (Alexitch, 1997;Beck et al, 1991;Eison, 1982).…”

“…Learning-oriented (LO) students enjoy learning for the sake of learning and typically view the classroom as an opportunity to experience and acquire new information that is both personally and professionally significant; conversely, grade-oriented (GO) students generally desire tangible classroom outcomes (e.g., good grades) and often view classes as a ''necessary evil'' in the process of attaining professional or career goals (Eison, Pollio, & Milton, 1986;Kroll, 1988). LO students have higher levels of self-motivation (Beck, Rorrer-Woody, & Pierce, 1991), experience less anxiety about tests and assignments (Eison, 1982), possess more effective study skills (Beck et al, 1991), and are more likely to adopt an internal locus of control in the classroom than their GO counterparts (Shell & Husman, 2008). Additionally, GO students perform worse on exams and quizzes, report lower affect toward their instructors, and tend to have a lower overall GPA in college (Alexitch, 1997;Beck et al, 1991;Eison, 1982).…”

Investigating classroom community in higher education

“…For motivation orientation, we used instruments that follow the tenets of goal theory, in which achievement goals can be learning oriented or performance oriented (Dweck & Leggett, 1988); the LOGO II (Eison & Pollio, 1985;Eison, Pollio, & Milton, 1986) and the PALS (Midgley et al, 1996). The LOGO II (Learning Orientation, Grade Orientation; originally developed by Eison (1981Eison ( , 1982) is a 32-item questionnaire designed to measure learning-oriented attitudes and behaviors as well as grade-oriented attitudes and behaviors. Because this measure 1) examines student motivation in a comprehensive way (attitudes and behaviors), 2) was normed for college students, and 3) the learning orientation portion has been related to trust, placidity, and independence, characteristics similar to the qualitative findings for our study, we decided to use the learning orientation portion of the LOGO in our survey.…”

“…Eight items from the LOGO (Learning Orientations and Goal Orientations) were extracted from the scale originally developed by Eison (1982). These items were designed to measure learning (mastery) oriented behaviors for the course in which they were surveyed (α = .76).…”