The Intrinsic Learning Goals of Elementary School Students, in Their Own Words

Abstract

Applying intrinsic life goals and learning goals increases children’s autonomous motivation to learn and enjoyment of learning. A paucity of field-based intervention studies have focused on helping students set intrinsic life goals and learning goals. In particular, there is a need for qualitative studies that examine intrinsic learning goal content over the course of an intervention. This qualitative study examined the homework goals that 15 upper elementary school students wrote over the course of 5 weeks within the context of a 7-week parent autonomy support and student life goals intervention. Three themes were identified: (1) overtly healthy attitudes toward the learning process (e.g., focusing on enjoyment, interest, persistence, creativity, and taking on challenges); (2) expressing motivation for helping others, which is a key intrinsic life goal; and (3) deeper purposes for academic subjects (i.e., spelling, reading, math, and science), which students usually experience as more meaningful and satisfying than extrinsic goals. Whereas most previous studies assess goal orientation by having students fill out forced-choice questionnaires, future intrinsic life goals intervention studies may benefit from considering these themes and the way children describe their own intrinsic goals, because they could help with training students to set goals that support autonomous motivation.