The role of achievement goal orientations in students' perceptions of and preferences for classroom environment.

BACKGROUND Recent research on achievement motivation has begun to examine the effects of environmental factors affecting students' motivational beliefs and goal tendencies. However, when interpreting and applying the results, individual factors underlying students' different perceptions of their learning environment are often ignored. An implicit assumption seems to be that regardless of their dispositional differences (e.g. motivational basis), students will experience and benefit from instructional practices in the same way. AIMS This paper highlights the importance of students' dispositional motivational factors when examining differences in their perceptions of and preferences for the learning environment. The study builds on a conception of student motivation that emphasizes the interaction of individual and contextual factors. SAMPLE AND METHOD Questionnaires served as self-report tools and assessed students' achievement goal orientations, self-esteem, causality beliefs, academic withdrawal and perceptions of and preferences for the learning environment. The sample consisted of 208 sixth grade elementary school students. RESULTS Based on latent class cluster analysis and one-way analyses of variance, it was found that students' perceptions of and preferences for the learning environment vary depending on differences in students' motivational tendencies. CONCLUSIONS Students' dispositional motivational characteristics should be taken into account both in theoretical considerations and in instructional interventions.

[1]  Michael J. Middleton,et al.  Performance-Approach Goals: Good for What, for Whom, under What Circumstances, and at What Cost?. , 2001 .

[2]  Margaret H. Gheen,et al.  Classroom goal structure and student disruptive behaviour. , 2002, The British journal of educational psychology.

[3]  K. E. Barron,et al.  Revision of achievement goal theory: Necessary and illuminating. , 2002 .

[4]  A. Satorra,et al.  Corrections to test statistics and standard errors in covariance structure analysis. , 1994 .

[5]  Can achievement motivation theory succeed with only one conception of success , 1989 .

[6]  Stuart A. Karabenick,et al.  Relation of perceived instructional goals and incentives to college students' use of learning strategies , 1997 .

[7]  Paul Cobb,et al.  Assessing students' theories of success in mathematics: Individual and classroom differences. , 1990 .

[8]  Markku Niemivirta,et al.  MOTIVATION AND PERFORMANCE IN CONTEXT: THE INFLUENCE OF GOAL ORIENTATIONS AND INSTRUCTIONAL SETTING ON SITUATIONAL APPRAISALS AND TASK PERFORMANCE , 2002 .

[9]  D. Magnusson.  The logic and implications of a person-oriented approach. , 1998 .

[10]  P. Bentler,et al.  Comparative fit indexes in structural models. , 1990, Psychological bulletin.

[11]  Carole A. Ames,et al.  Achievement Goals in the Classroom: Students' Learning Strategies and Motivation Processes , 1988 .

[12]  John G. Nicholls,et al.  Individual differences in academic motivation: Perceived ability, goals, beliefs, and values , 1989 .

[13]  T. Urdan.  Using Multiple Methods to Assess Students' Perceptions of Classroom Goal Structures , 2004 .

[14]  J. Harackiewicz,et al.  Approach and avoidance achievement goals and intrinsic motivation: A mediational analysis. , 1996 .

[15]  Eric M. Anderman,et al.  Social Predictors of Changes in Students' Achievement Goal Orientations. , 1999, Contemporary educational psychology.

[16]  C. Midgley,et al.  If I don't do well tomorrow, there's a reason : Predictors of adolescents' use of academic self-handicapping strategies , 1996 .

[17]  E. Skaalvik.  Self-enhancing and self-defeating ego orientation: Relations with task and avoidance orientation, achievement, self-perceptions, and anxiety. , 1997 .

[18]  Elizabeth A. Linnenbrink.  The Dilemma of Performance-Approach Goals: The Use of Multiple Goal Contexts to Promote Students' Motivation and Learning. , 2005 .

[19]  Eric M. Anderman,et al.  Motivation and strategy use in science: Individual differences and classroom effects , 1994 .

[20]  Eric M. Anderman,et al.  The Development of Goal Orientation , 2002 .

[21]  Edward L. Deci,et al.  Promoting Self‐determined Education , 1994 .

[22]  J. Meece,et al.  Student Perceptions in the Classroom , 1992 .

[23]  R. Roeser,et al.  Studying Early Adolescents' Academic Motivation, Social-Emotional Functioning, and Engagement in Learning: Variable- and Person-Centered Approaches , 2002 .

[24]  Albert Satorra,et al.  A scaled difference chi-square test statistic for moment structure analysis , 1999 .

[25]  Jacob Cohen.  Statistical Power Analysis for the Behavioral Sciences , 1969, The SAGE Encyclopedia of Research Design.

[26]  C. Dweck,et al.  Implicit Theories: Elaboration and Extension of the Model , 1995 .

[27]  Rhona S. Weinstein,et al.  Classroom Factors Affecting Students’ Self-Evaluations: An Interactional Model , 1984 .

[28]  P. Pintrich.  Multiple Goals, Multiple Pathways: The Role of Goal Orientation in Learning and Achievement. , 2000 .

[29]  J. Vermunt,et al.  Latent class cluster analysis , 2002 .

[30]  Eric M. Anderman,et al.  The classroom environment and students' reports of avoidance strategies in mathematics: A multimethod study. , 2002 .

[31]  Carol Midgley,et al.  Perceptions of the school psychological environment and early adolescents' psychological and behavioral functioning in school: The mediating role of goals and belonging. , 1996 .

[32]  A. Elliot,et al.  Achievement Goals and the Hierarchical Model of Achievement Motivation , 2001 .

[33]  M. Niemivirta,et al.  Goal Orientations and Action-Control Beliefs , 2001 .

[34]  Carole A. Ames.  Achievement goals and the classroom motivational climate. , 1992 .

[35]  Michael Chapman,et al.  Control, means-ends, and agency beliefs : A new conceptualization and its measurement during childhood , 1988 .

[36]  D. J. Lee.  Society and the Adolescent Self-Image , 1969 .

[37]  Jere Brophy,et al.  Research on the Self-Fulfilling Prophecy and Teacher Expectations. , 1983 .

[38]  Michael J. Middleton,et al.  Avoiding the demonstration of lack of ability: An underexplored aspect of goal theory. , 1997 .

[39]  Thomas M. Haladyna,et al.  Personal and environmental influences on students' beliefs about effective study strategies , 1990 .

[40]  Paul R. Pintrich,et al.  Multiple goals, multiple contexts: The dynamic interplay between personal goals and contextual goal stresses. , 2001 .

[41]  Eric M. Anderman,et al.  The Role of Classroom Goal Structure in Students’ Use of Self-Handicapping Strategies , 1998 .

[42]  C. Mitchell Dayton,et al.  Model Selection Information Criteria for Non-Nested Latent Class Models , 1997 .

[43]  John G. Nicholls,et al.  The Competitive Ethos and Democratic Education , 1989 .

[44]  M. Maehr.  Advances in Motivation and Achievement , 1991 .

[45]  Robert J. Stevens,et al.  Advances in research on teaching , 1981 .

[46]  Carole A. Ames.  Classrooms: Goals, structures, and student motivation. , 1992 .

[47]  A. Elliot,et al.  Test anxiety and the hierarchical model of approach and avoidance achievement motivation. , 1999, Journal of personality and social psychology.

[48]  Thomas M. Haladyna,et al.  Motivation and studying in high school science , 1990 .

[49]  M. Rosenberg.  Society and the adolescent self-image , 1966 .

[50]  J. H. Steiger.  Structural Model Evaluation and Modification: An Interval Estimation Approach. , 1990, Multivariate behavioral research.

[51]  Kathleen Holt,et al.  A Pattern Analysis of Students' Achievement Goals. , 1993 .

[52]  C. Midgley,et al.  The relationship between perceptions of the classroom goal structure and early adolescents' affect in school: The mediating role of coping strategies , 1999 .

[53]  J. Connell,et al.  What It Takes to Do Well in School and Whether I've Got It: A Process Model of Perceived Control and Children's Engagement and Achievement in School , 1990 .

[54]  Andrew J. Elliot,et al.  Perceptions of Classroom Environment, Achievement Goals, and Achievement Outcomes. , 2001 .

[55]  Lars R. Bergman,et al.  Studying Individual Development in an Interindividual Context: A Person-Oriented Approach , 2002 .

[56]  Barbara A. Greene,et al.  Predicting high school students' cognitive engagement and achievement: Contributions of classroom perceptions and motivation , 2004 .

[57]  J. Barnes,et al.  The Relationships Between Cooperative, Competitive, and Individualized Learning Preferences and Students’ Perceptions of Classroom Learning Atmosphere , 1982 .

[58]  R. Ryan,et al.  PERSONALITY PROCESSES AND INDIVIDUAL DIFFERENCES Origins and Pawns in the Classroom: Self-Report and Projective Assessments of Individual Differences in Children's Perceptions , 1986 .

[59]  P. Lachenbruch.  Statistical Power Analysis for the Behavioral Sciences (2nd ed.) , 1989 .

[60]  D. Sörbom.  Model modification , 1989 .

[61]  C. Dweck,et al.  A social-cognitive approach to motivation and personality , 1988 .

[62]  A. Young.  I think, therefore I'm motivated: The relations among cognitive strategy use, motivational orientation and classroom perceptions over time , 1997 .

[63]  P. Pintrich,et al.  An Achievement Goal Theory Perspective on Issues in Motivation Terminology, Theory, and Research. , 2000, Contemporary educational psychology.

[64]  C. Wolters.  Advancing Achievement Goal Theory: Using Goal Structures and Goal Orientations to Predict Students' Motivation, Cognition, and Achievement. , 2004 .

[65]  A. Elliot,et al.  A 2 X 2 achievement goal framework. , 2001, Journal of personality and social psychology.

[66]  Susan Bobbitt Nolen,et al.  Adolescents' theories of education. , 1985 .

[67]  R. Straton,et al.  The Development of a Co-Operative, Competitive, and Individualised Learning Preference Scale for Students. , 1980 .

[68]  Carole A. Ames,et al.  Systems of student and teacher motivation: Toward a qualitative definition. , 1984 .