Short-term and long-term consequences of achievement goals: Predicting interest and performance over time.

Abstract

Why do some students excel in their college classes and develop interest in an academic discipline? The authors examined both the short-term and long-term consequences of students' achievement goals in an introductory psychology course. Mastery goals positively predicted subsequent interest in the course, but not course grades. Performance goals positively predicted grades, but not interest. Three semesters later, the authors obtained measures of continued interest in the discipline and long-term performance. Mastery goals predicted subsequent enrollment in psychology courses, whereas performance goals predicted long-term academic performance. These positive and complementary effects of mastery and performance goals on different measures of academic success are consistent with a multiple-goals perspective in which both goals can have beneficial consequences in college education. College students often pursue multiple goals in their classes. Some goals may be fairly general and concern students' reasons for taking a class, whereas other goals are more specific to what students hope to accomplish in the course-to learn as much as they can about the subject or to obtain a high grade. These latter types of goals have been labeled achievement goals (Ames, 1992; Dweck, 1986; Nicholls, 1989), and they can influence how students approach, experience, and perform in their classes. A great deal of research has investigated the relationship between achievement goals and a wide range of educationally relevant measures such as learning strategies, attributions for success, and academic performance (see Ames, 1992, for a review). However, there has been relatively little research attention given to motivational variables such as interest and intrinsic motivation (see Harackiewicz, Barron, & Elliot, 1998, for review), and even less attention to the long-term consequences of achievement goals. We believe that educational research needs to consider not only how well students perform in their courses, but also whether students develop interest in the topics taught in those courses (

Are Filipino Students’ L2 Learning Goals Performance- or Mastery-oriented? An Explanatory Sequential Analysis

“…And in this study, the performance goalorientation profoundly emerged as the most adaptive form of achievement goal. The findings about the salience of performance goal orientation in student's task performance in L2 learning resonate the earlier findings in previous studies (Church et al, 2001;Harackiewicz et al, 2000), while challenging widely held notions in goal structure research that either a mastery or a multiple approach was more adaptive than the performance approach (Pintrich, 2000).…”

“…It can be surmised from the results that the writing scores of those who espoused a performance approach to L2 learning were significantly higher than either those with a mastery and those with a multiple goal approach. The results seem to provide interesting, context-specific evidence that, as far as Filipino L2 learners are concerned, it is the performance goal orientation that is the most adaptive form of goal orientation -which is a less common finding in the literature (Church et al, 2001;Harackiewicz et al, 2000). Importantly, in contrast with Pintrich's (2000) claim, the multiple goal approach appears to be a maladaptive form of goal orientation in L2 learning.…”

Motivation, learning, and transformative experience: A study of deep engagement in science

“…In contrast, students who endorse performance goal orientations, either approach or avoidance, would be unlikely to engage in transformative experience, as this would not readily serve their focus on demonstrating their competence or avoiding appearing incompetent. There is some support for these hypotheses in that mastery goals, but not performance goals, have been linked to increases in interest (e.g., Harackiewicz, Barron, Carter, Lehto, & Elliot, 1997;Harackiewicz, Barron, Tauer, Carter, & Elliot, 2000).…”

Escala de factores estructurales de la clase: una medida para evaluar características de la clase relacionadas con las metas académicas de los estudiantes.

“…Un gran número de investigaciones indican que los estudiantes muestran un patrón motivacional mucho más positivo cuando ellos están orientados hacia metas de Dominio (Meece, Anderman y Anderman, 2006). Logran persistir más en tareas de gran dificulta (Elliot y Dweck, 1988), reportan altos niveles de involucramiento (Harackievicz et. Al.…”