Perceived Classroom Goal Structures Research Articles

Structural Relationships among Middle School Students’ Perceived Classroom Goal Structure, Growth Mindset, Achievement Goals, and Self-Regulated Learning

Structural Relationships among Middle School Students’ Perceived Classroom Goal Structure, Growth Mindset, Achievement Goals, and Self-Regulated Learning

How adolescents’ perceived teachers’ mindset beliefs influence school engagement in China: Roles of perceived classroom goal structures and adolescents’ mindset beliefs

How adolescents’ perceived teachers’ mindset beliefs influence school engagement in China: Roles of perceived classroom goal structures and adolescents’ mindset beliefs

Stress of school performance among secondary students: The role of classroom goal structures and teacher support

With concern growing about the increasing levels of school stress among secondary school students, examining its associations with students' perceptions of important elements in classroom climate can offer valuable scientific information. However, there is minimal research about the role of perceived classroom goal structures and teacher support in school stress. In addition, most research on classroom goal structure has not made a distinction between performance-approach structures and performance-avoidance structures, which may have different effects on school stress. The aim of the present study was to examine the role of classroom goal structures and teacher support in students' stress linked to school performance. We also examined the potential moderating effect of teacher support in the association between classroom goal structures and stress. Our sample consisted of 4768 secondary school students aged 11–17 years (Mage = 13.74; 47.9% boys) from 54 schools in Andalusia, Spain. Consistent with the study's aims, hierarchical multilevel multiple regression was used to examine the relationships between mastery goal structure, performance-approach goal structure, performance-avoidance goal structure, and teacher support on our stress of school performance outcome. After controlling for gender, age, and previous academic achievement, performance-avoidance goal structure was significantly associated with higher levels of stress of school performance (p < .01). Furthermore, perceived classroom goals and teacher support tended to work together, with the role of performance-approach goal structure being dependent on the levels of mastery goal structure and teacher support (p < .05). Practical implications from these findings and future research directions are discussed.

Achievement trajectories in low-achieving students as a function of perceived classroom goal structures and socioeconomic backgrounds

Achievement trajectories in low-achieving students as a function of perceived classroom goal structures and socioeconomic backgrounds

Unpacking classroom goal structures based on students’ own words

Achievement goal theory research, which investigates students’ perceptions of the classroom climate, has mainly focused on teacher practices from a deductive perspective. However, this appears to hinder a fuller understanding of all the factors that influence students’ perceptions of the classroom goal structures (CGS). Therefore, using a combination of inductive and deductive approaches, a series of three studies was conducted to identify new elements in students’ perceptions of CGS in relation to mathematics. In Study 1 (N = 340, 5th–7th graders), a self-reporting Hungarian-language questionnaire was developed to measure CGS. In Study 2 (N = 250, 7th graders), the same questionnaire was supplemented with open-ended questions about the classroom climate. Based on a qualitative analysis of these open-ended questions, new scales, one each for the factors of helping peers, recognition by peers, and image of the classroom community, were created in Study 3 (N = 438, 6th–8th graders) to explore their relationship to classroom goal structures. Factor analysis confirmed the expected structure, except for recognition by peers, which had to be divided into two factors with the new construct known as teasing peers. Findings confirm the relevance of a combined, inductive–deductive approach in examining CGS.

Examining the Role of Perceived Classroom Goal Structures and Parents’ Goals in ESL/EFL Learners’ Achievement Goals, Engagement and Achievement

ABSTRACT This study examined the role of perceived classroom goal structures and parent’s goals in predicting students’ achievement goals, engagement and achievement. Mastery goals were predicted by both classroom and parents’ mastery goals. Both performance-approach goals and performance-avoidance goals were predicted by both classroom and parents’ performance goals. Mastery goals had positive impacts on academic engagement and achievement, but performance-avoidance goals had negative impacts. The impacts of performance-approach goals were not significant. Classroom and parents’ mastery goals had indirect positive effects on academic engagement and achievement through mastery goals. Parents’ performance goals had indirect negative effects through performance-avoidance goals.

From teachers' personal achievement goals to students’ perceptions of classroom goal structures: Via student-oriented goals and specific instructional practices

To elucidate how teachers' goals matter for instructional practices and classroom goal structures, we conducted a study with 84 secondary school teachers and their 1447 students. Students reported classroom goal structures and specific mastery- and performance-oriented instructional practices. Teachers reported personal achievement goals and student-oriented goals. Two-level modeling indicated that mastery-oriented instructional practices were predicted by teachers' student-oriented goals and, indirectly, by their personal mastery goals (positively) and performance approach goals (negatively), while performance-oriented instructional practices were negatively predicted by teachers' personal mastery goals. Classroom goal structures were closely related to these instructional practices and were indirectly predicted by teachers’ goals.

Do achievement goals mediate the relationship between classroom goal structures and student emotions at school?

ABSTRACT It is expected that teacher practices could improve students’ emotional state by encouraging the endorsement of adaptive goals. However, the mediation effect of achievement goals in the relationship between classroom goal structures and emotions has never been demonstrated empirically. This study therefore investigated this important issue using a multilevel framework, which is more appropriate for testing contextual effects. The participants were 1,232 students (9th grade) from 72 classrooms. They completed a self-reported questionnaire about their emotions at school, their achievement goals and their perceptions of classroom goal structures. Multilevel analysis showed that students’ anger, anxiety, and enjoyment were related to goal structures at classroom level. Only the effects of mastery goal structure on anger and enjoyment were mediated by students’ mastery goals. These results highlight the relevance of simultaneously considering personal goals and classroom goal structures using multilevel models. From a practical point of view, these findings mainly support the relevance of classroom mastery goal structure to improve students’ emotional well-being.

과제비용의 예측 변인으로서 지각된 교실목표구조의 역할

학습자가 과제를 수행하는 과정에서 인식하게 되는 비용은 학습 결과와 성취 행동에 부정적인 역할을 한다. 그러므로 학습자의 과제비용 인식을 낮추기 위해서는 과제비용의 예측 요인을 탐색하는 작업이 필요하다. 본 연구에서는 과제비용의 환경적 선행 요인으로 지각된 교실목표구조를 설정하여 숙달목표구조와 수행목표구조가 학생들의 비용 인식을 어떻게 예측하는지 검증하였다. 또한, 교실목표구조와 과제비용, 학업적 성취 행동(학습지속, 학업지연, 도움요청회피)의 구조적 관계를 분석함으로써 과제비용의 매개역할을 확인하고자 하였다. 이를 위해, 초등학생을 대상으로 설문조사를 실시하였으며 분석 방법으로는 구조방정식 모형을 활용하였다. 연구 결과, 학생들은 숙달목표구조를 강하게 인식할수록 과제비용을 낮게 인식하였고, 반대로 수행목표구조를 강하게 인식할수록 과제비용을 높게 인식하였다. 또한, 과제비용 인식이 높아질수록 학습지속성은 낮아졌으며, 학업 지연과 도움요청 회피 행동은 증가하였다. 마지막으로, 과제비용은 지각된 교실목표구조와 학업적 성취 행동의 관계를 유의하게 매개하는 것으로 나타났다. 연구 결과를 바탕으로 학생들이 학습 과정에서 인식하는 과제비용을 낮추기 위한 실질적인 교실 환경 조성에 관하여 논의하였으며, 후속적으로 이루어져야 하는 과제비용 관련 연구들을 제안하였다.

Perceived classroom goal structures as predictors of students’ personal goals

ABSTRACTThis study focused on the question of how to enhance a mastery-goal orientation in the classroom. We started from the perspective of the achievement goal theory, which assumes that the goals that students have (personal goals) relate to the goals that are set in the classroom (classroom goal structures). In classrooms where teachers focus on learning and effort -instead of normative standards and social comparison- mastery goals are enhanced. This type of classroom can be endorsed by focusing on the following classroom structures: Task design, Autonomy, Recognition, Grouping, Evaluation, and Time (TARGET). The present study investigated how classroom goal structures as perceived by students are related to students’ personal goals. Based on survey data from 501 students from three secondary schools in the Netherlands, we found that the Task design dimension, concerning designing challenging and varied tasks, and the Time dimension, concerning e.g., pacing, predicted both mastery-approach and avoidance goals. Our findings provide insight in how perceived classroom goal structures are related to students’ personal goals that focus on understanding/competence, thus informing teachers and educational developers where to start when it comes to improving student motivation.

The mediating role of perceived peer motivational climate between classroom mastery goal structure and social goal orientations

Students' social goal orientations have been identified as an important factor in functioning and performance within academic settings. The current research explored whether the relationship between perceived classroom goal structure and social goals is mediated by peer motivational climate. Study 1 was based on a cross-sectional design (N = 951; 40.6% girls; mean age = 13.22) of students from 41 different classes, and Study 2 followed a different cohort of students in two time-points over the school year (N = 355; 62% girls; mean age = 14.38). The results were consistent across the multilevel path-analysis (Study 1) and the half-longitudinal mediation analysis using structural equation modeling (Study 2). Students' perceptions of the teacher's emphasis on mastery goals enhanced perceptions of positive peer motivational climate, which in turn predicted social development goals. Students' perception of mastery classroom goals was also related to decreases in negative peer motivational climate, which in turn predicted demonstration-approach social goals.

Does perceived competence serve as a protective mechanism against performance goals for struggling readers? Path analysis of contextual antecedents and reading outcomes

This study examined the extent to which struggling readers' perceived classroom goal structures explain their adoption of personal achievement goals and ratings of perceived competence. We also investigated how these motivational characteristics relate to outcomes in word reading and reading comprehension in a sample of fourth and fifth grade struggling readers (N = 112). In a series of path analyses, different motivational patterns emerged in predicting word reading and reading comprehension. Mastery goals negatively predicted while perceived competence positively predicted word reading. For reading comprehension, only perceived competence was a significant motivational predictor. However, for both reading outcomes, perceived competence had a positive moderating role against the potential negative effect of performance-avoidance goals on reading. Our findings also highlight the importance of focusing on mastery goals within the classroom in order to promote students' perceptions of competence in reading comprehension.

The role of friends in help-seeking tendencies during early adolescence: Do classroom goal structures moderate selection and influence of friends?

Research has evidenced that help-seeking is an important self-regulatory strategy of learning. However, the role of friends in help-seeking has been underexplored. In the current study, we examined the longitudinal associations between early adolescents’ selection and influence of friends and help-seeking tendencies, and whether students’ perceived classroom goal structures moderate these associations among fifth and sixth graders (N = 736 at Wave 1, N = 677 at Wave 2). With longitudinal social network analyses, results indicated that friends were similar to each other in adaptive as well as avoidant help-seeking tendencies, and this similarity was explained by selection and influence of friends, while controlling for students’ gender and achievement, and classroom goal structures. Students chose friends who were similar to themselves in adaptive help-seeking behavior. Friends influenced one another in their avoidant help-seeking behavior over time. Further, students’ perceived classroom goal structures moderated these processes. Students who perceived higher mastery emphasis (i.e., the development of competence) in their classroom were more likely to select friends who seek adaptive help, and were more influenced by their friends’ adaptive help-seeking behavior. Conversely, students who perceived higher performance emphasis (i.e., the demonstration of competence) in their classroom were more likely to select friends who avoid seeking help.

Students’ perceptions of mathematics classroom goal structures: implications for perceived task values and study behavior

Relations between 8th and 10th grade students’ perceptions of classroom goal structures, task values, anxiety, help-seeking behavior, and effort in mathematics classes were examined. The authors investigated whether the associations between perceived goal structures and anxiety, help-seeking behavior, and effort are mediated through students’ perceptions of the importance/utility value, cost, and intrinsic value of mathematics. Three hundred and nine Norwegian middle school students participated. Students’ perceptions that their mathematics classroom had a mastery goal structure directly and indirectly related to their math anxiety but only indirectly to students’ reports of their help-seeking behavior and effort. Their perceptions that their mathematics classroom had a performance goal structure directly and indirectly related to their math anxiety as well as effort and help-seeking behavior. Thus, the associations between perceived classroom goal structures and math anxiety, help-seeking behavior, and effort are, at least partly, mediated through students’ subjective task values.

The role of perceived classroom goal structures, self-efficacy, and engagement in student science achievement

Background: Numerous studies have been conducted to investigate the factors related to science achievement. In these studies, the classroom goal structure perceptions, engagement, and self-efficacy of the students have emerged as important factors to be examined in relation to students’ science achievement.Purpose: This study examines the relationships between classroom goal structure perception variables (motivating tasks, autonomy support, and mastery evaluation), engagement (behavioral, emotional, cognitive, and agentic engagement), self-efficacy, and science achievement.Sample: The study participants included 744 seventh-grade students from 9 public schools in two districts of Gaziantep in Turkey.Design and methods: Data were collected through the administration of four instruments: Survey of Classroom Goals Structures, Engagement Questionnaire, Motivated Strategies for Learning Questionnaire, and Science Achievement Test. The obtained data were subjected to path analysis to test the proposed model.Results: Students’ perceptions of classroom goal structures (i.e. motivating tasks, autonomy support, and mastery evaluation) were found to be significant predictors of their self-efficacy. Autonomy support was observed to be positively linked to all aspects of engagement, while motivating tasks were found to be related only to cognitive engagement. In addition, mastery evaluation was shown to be positively linked to engagement variables, except for cognitive engagement, and self-efficacy and engagement (i.e. behavioral, emotional, and cognitive engagement) were observed to be significant predictors of science achievement. Finally, results revealed reciprocal relations among engagement variables, except for agentic engagement.Conclusions: Students who perceive mastery goal structures tend to show higher levels of engagement and self-efficacy in science classes. The study found that students who have high self-efficacy and who are behaviorally, emotionally, and cognitively engaged are more successful in science classes. Accordingly, it is recommended that science teachers utilize inquiry-based and hands-on science activities in science classes and focus on the personal improvement of the students. Furthermore, it is also recommended that they provide students with opportunities to make their own choices and decisions and to control their own actions in science classes.

Effects of classroom goal structures on student emotions at school

The aim of the current study was to improve our understanding of classroom environment effect on student’s discrete emotions at school. Nine hundred and ten adolescents from 55 classrooms completed a self-reported questionnaire about five emotions (anger, boredom, anxiety, shame, and enjoyment) and their perceptions of classroom goal structures. Multilevel analyses showed that anger is negatively associated with mastery goal structure and positively associated with performance goal structure, boredom is negatively associated with mastery goal structure, and anxiety and shame are both positively associated with performance goal structure. Both individual perceptions and classroom-level indicators of goals structures were associated with emotions, but these effects varied according to the discrete emotion taken into account and to the level of analysis.

High School Students’ Motivation to Learn Mathematics: The Role of Multiple Goals

Using a sample of 310 Year 10 Chinese students from Hong Kong, this survey study examined the effects of multiple goals in learning mathematics. Independent variables were mastery, performance-approach, performance-avoidance, and pro-social goals. Dependent variables included perceived classroom goal structures, teacher’s support, learning motives and strategies, attitudes, and grade aspiration. Based on regression and cluster analyses, this study found convergent evidence supporting the benefits of adopting additional adaptive goals alongside mastery goals. Regression analyses located significant interaction between pro-social goals and mastery goals in predicting higher levels of positive learning attitudes and lower levels of surface learning motives. Cluster analyses confirmed that students endorsing pro-social goals, performance-approach goals and mastery goals in their goal profiles had an adaptive pattern of perceptions, use of strategies, learning motives and grade aspiration in mathematics.

Teachers' goal orientations: Effects on classroom goal structures and emotions.

Prior research has shown teachers' goal orientations to influence classroom goal structures (Retelsdorf etal., 2010, Learning and Instruction, 20, 30) and to also impact their emotions (Schutz etal., 2007, Emotion in education, Academic Press, Amsterdam, the Netherlands). However, empirical research evaluating possible causal ordering and mediation effects involving these variables in teachers is presently lacking. The present 6-month longitudinal study investigated the relations between varied motivational, behavioural, and emotional variables in practising teachers. More specifically, this study examined the reciprocal, longitudinal relations between teachers' achievement goals, classroom goal structures, and teaching-related emotions, as well as cumulative mediational models in which observed causal relations were evaluated. Participants were 495 practising teachers from Canada (86% female, M=42years). Teachers completed a web-based questionnaire at two time points assessing their instructional goals, perceived classroom goal structures, achievement emotions, and demographic items. Results from cross-lagged analyses and structural equationmodelling showed teachers' achievement goals to predict their perceived classroom goal structures that, in turn, predicted their teaching-related emotions. The present results inform both Butler's (2012, Journal of Educational Psychology, 104, 726) theory on teachers' achievement goals and Frenzel's (2014, International handbook of emotions in education, Routledge, New York, NY) model of teachers' emotions in showing teachers' instructional goals to both directly predict their teaching-related emotions, as well as indirectly through the mediating effects of classroom goal structures.

Classroom Achievement Goal Structure, School Engagement, and Substance Use Among 10th Grade Students in Norway

The present study was aimed at investigating the relationships between students’ perceived classroom achievement goals, school engagement and substance use in terms of smoking and drinking, and at investigating gender differences regarding these issues in a sample of 1,239 Norwegian 10th grade students. A multivariate analysis showed that motivational and affective school engagement was predicted primarily by the students’ perception of a mastery goal structure. However, motivational engagement was significantly more strongly predicted by achievement goal structures among boys than girls, in particular by mastery goal structure. The results also showed that school engagement, particularly motivational engagement, was negatively related to substance use. In conclusion, school engagement seems to be an important multi-dimensional indicator of motivation which is related both to perceived classroom goal structure and to students’ substance use in terms of smoking and drinking. Despite the correlational design of the present study, it is reasonable to advise the promotion of a mastery goal structure in the classroom.

The role of goal structures and peer climate in trajectories of social achievement goals during high school.

Students' social goals--reasons for engaging in interpersonal relationships with peers--are consequential for students' interactions with their peers at school and for their well-being. Despite the salience of peer relationships during adolescence, research on social goals is generally lacking compared with academic goals, and it is unknown how these social goals develop over time, especially among high school students. The aim of the study was to assess trajectories of students' social goals and to determine how relevant individual and contextual variables predicted initial levels and trajectories of students' social goals. Participants were 9th through 12th grade students (N = 526) attending a U.S. high school. Students filled out surveys of their social goals (social development, social demonstration-approach, and social demonstration-avoidance) 6 times across 2 school years. Nonlinear growth curve analyses and piecewise growth curve analyses were used to assess trajectories of social goals across time. Students' initial levels of social goals differed based on their gender, grade level, prior achievement, and perceptions of classroom goals structures and peer climate. Furthermore, despite substantial stability over time, the shapes of these goal trajectories were predicted by students' gender, grade level, and perceptions of classroom goal structures and peer climate. In particular, students who perceived an increase in performance-avoidance classroom goals maintained higher demonstration social goals and decreased in developmental social goals over time, and students who perceived an increase in positive peer climate decreased in demonstration-avoidance social goals. Implications and directions for future research on social goals are discussed.