Learning environment and type of goals: how it affects preschool children's performance and their perceptions of their performance?

Abstract

The aim of this research was to study the effect of learning environment and type of goals on: (a) preschool children's performance during a play, (b) preschool children's perception of their performance and (c) preschool children's satisfaction. Fifty-six preschool children (24 boys and 32 girls; Mage = 5.5 years) took part in this study. The children played a game three times with different goal and under different learning environment each time. Results showed that preschool children had higher performance when the game was conducted under the presence of their classmates independently of the type of goal being set by the researchers. Furthermore, the vast majority of preschool children evaluates their performance as very good and answered that they felt happy in every condition.