Abstract
A large number of studies have investigated achievement goals and their related antecedents and consequences above elementary school level. However, few studies have implemented achievement goal assessment to investigate achievement goals and their relevance for preschoolers. In particular, no valid measurement has been developed for preschoolers’ self-reporting of their achievement goals. The main purposes of this study were twofold: (1) To develop an innovative achievement goal measurement for preschoolers, and to investigate the best theoretical model for understanding preschoolers’ achievement goal across gender. (2) To examine the effectiveness and efficiency of the pictorial and pure text measurement format and approaches (for young children’s self-reporting and teachers’ rating purposes, respectively). A total of 364 preschoolers aged 5 years participated in self-report activity, and 32 preschool teachers obtained consent to rate 193 out of 364 preschoolers. Results showed: (1) the developed achievement goal measurement was a valid tool for understanding preschoolers’ achievement goals and was equally suitable for boys and girls. (2) The 6-factor achievement goal model was the best theoretical perspective for understanding preschoolers’ achievement goals for both boys and girls. (3) The pictorial measurement format for preschoolers’ self-reporting of achievement goals was a more effective but less efficient way to investigate preschoolers’ achievement goals, while the opposite was the case for the pure text measurement format for teachers’ ratings. Implications for achievement goal literature and future research are discussed.
Highlights
IntroductionCompetence is the conceptual centerpiece of achievement and achievement motivation (Elliot and Dweck, 2005)
By examining evidence from experimental and qualitative research, this study proposed that preschoolers may be capable of evaluating and reporting on themselves according to three different referents, and to approach positive and avoid negative possibilities
Familiar scenes regarding preschoolers’ daily dialogue and behaviors represented by the pictorial format were developed to be attractive to young children and facilitate information retrieval so that preschoolers could successfully respond to the items
Summary
Competence is the conceptual centerpiece of achievement and achievement motivation (Elliot and Dweck, 2005). It is beneficial to have an understanding of the achievement goal before commencing task participation; this enables appropriate instruction intervention to adopted prior to the task beginning to promote or maintain the adaptive goal (i.e., dedicate time to mastery learning task). This prevents the adaptive goal and the maladaptive goal (i.e., try to avoid doing worse than other), respectively, from declining and increasing over time (Anderman and Midgley, 1997; Anderman et al, 1999; Meece and Miller, 2001; Bråten and Olaussen, 2005; Fryer and Elliot, 2007; Shim et al, 2008), and further affects learning performance (Lin and Hsieh, 2000; Lau and Nie, 2008; Daeun et al, 2016)
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