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Abstract
The purpose of this study was to investigate students' perceptions of mastery and performance goal orientations. It sought to determine what the relationship is between a student's perception of goal orientation and other key learning and personality variables such as learning strategy use, task challenge preference, attitude towards class, self-perception of ability, and causal attributions in classroom settings populated by at-risk students in Lincoln, Nebraska.
Data for the study were obtained through a survey administered to at-risk sophomores enrolled in thirteen sections of adjusted English. The 54 items on the survey were grouped into six sections: goal orientation, learning strategy use, task challenge preference, attitude towards class, perception of ability, and causal attributes for success and failure. One hundred and fifty-four, or 66 percent, of the at-risk students enrolled in adjusted English completed the survey.
At-risk students' perceptions of the classroom learning environment were differentiated by mastery and performance goal orientations. Perceiving a mastery goal orientation was found to foster adaptive motivation behaviors. Mastery goal orientation was a more significant predictor of effective learning strategy use, a positive attitude towards class, and choosing challenging tasks that resulted in new learning.
Students perceiving mastery goal orientations believed that their successes covaried with the expenditure of effort, good strategy use, and the teacher doing a good job. Both mastery and performance goal orientations were found to foster causal attributes for failure.
Self-perceived ability was found to be a significant predictor of learning strategy use, attitude towards class, and task challenge preference. Further analysis revealed that mastery goal orientation exceeded ability as a predictor.
Study findings support the importance of creating classroom learning environments based on the salience of mastery goal orientation. Specific recommendations for further research of goal orientation and future structuring of classrooms were presented.
