Abstract
Empirical research has provided evidence attesting to the potency of two major theoretical frameworks in teaching and learning, namely, achievement goals and effort. The testing of achievement goals and effort in various cross-sectional studies (Dupeyrat & Marine, 2005; Elliot, McGregor, & Gable, 1999; Fenollar, Roman, & Cuestas, 2007) has yielded findings that indicate their positive effects on academic achievement, directly and indirectly via means of other internal cognitive processes. We used latent growth modeling (LGM) procedures to identify and trace the initial states and change in mastery and performance-approach goals, and how they influence academic achievement in mathematics over time. Furthermore, aligning closely to social cognitive theory (Bandura, 1986, 1997), we explore the effects of prior academic achievement and effort on achievement goals and mathematic achievement. This examination involved 234 university students (97 females, 137 males) across six time points: prior academic achievement at Time 1, effort at Time 2, mastery and performance-approach goals at Time 3 to Time 5, and mathematic achievement at Time 6. Existing Likert-scale inventories were used to measure effort, mastery and performance-approach goals. Our LGM analyses indicated a decline in mastery goals and an increase in performance-approach goals over time. Both effort and prior academic achievement influenced the initial states of mastery and performance-approach goals, respectively. Likewise, prior academic achievement and effort contributed to the prediction of mathematic achievement at Time 6.
Highlights
Research in cognition and motivation has recently involved the study of the rate of change of both cognitive and non-cognitive processes
The conceptual model that we have developed for this research investigation, as shown in Figure 1, arises from two major theoretical frameworks, namely, achievement goals and effort
The administration of the questionnaires and the collection of data were as follows: Time 1 (T1) - prior academic results for mathematics were collected in mid-December, when participants were in first-year; Time 2 (T2) - effort measured in the second week of the second year, late-January; mastery and performance-approach goals measured at the end of April for Time 3 (T3), at the end of July for T4, and the beginning of November for Time 5 (T5); and end-of-year results for second-year mathematics in early December for Time 6 (T6)
Summary
Research in cognition and motivation has recently involved the study of the rate of change of both cognitive (e.g., achievement goal orientation) and non-cognitive (e.g., self-efficacy) processes. In essence, differing from other cross-sectional and longitudinal procedures (e.g., cross-lagged panel), this methodological approach is advantageous as it enables longitudinal examination of developmental changes of theoretical constructs and achievement outcomes. From this impetus, we incorporate LGM procedures in our research investigation to explore the developmental course of university students’ mastery and performance-approach goal orientations over a two-year period. In conjunction with existing empirical evidence, our conceptual model emphasizes two major hypotheses: (i) the impact of prior academic achievement on students’ effort, mastery and performance-approach goal orientations, and academic achievement, and (ii) the relations between effort and academic achievement, and between effort and the initial states and change in mastery and performance-approach goals and academic achievement. We purposively chose to examine effort and mastery and performance-approach goal orientations as these theoretical constructs have www.ccsenet.org/jedp
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