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Research has shown the importance of goal orientation in predicting academic performance for children, adolescents, and college students in traditional educational settings. Studies on this relationship within adult distance education, however, are lacking. To fill this gap, the present study was conducted to investigate the relationship between goal orientation and academic performance in adult distance learners. A sample of N = 1128distance university students (age 18-75 years) filled out an online questionnaire. Their exam grades were collected from the files of the Open University of the Netherlands (OUNL). A mixed model regression showed performance approach goal orientation to be a positive predictor of academic performance, whereas performance avoidance and work avoidance were negative predictors of academic performance. Non-significant results were found for mastery approach as well as for mastery avoidance. Implications of these results are discussed.
Keywords: ALOUD study, adult distance students, achievement goal questionnaire, AGQ, work avoidance, mixed model analysis
Introduction
Being academically successful is highly dependent on what motivates a person to study, something which can also be expressed as someone's goal orientation (Dweck, 1986). Although the relationship between goal orientation and academic achievement has been studied extensively in traditional educational settings for children (e.g., Anderman & Midgley, 1997; Butler, 2008), adolescents (e.g., Brdar, Rijavec, & Loncaric, 2006; Greene, Miller, Crowson, Duke, & Akey, 2004; Steinmayr, Bipp, & Spinath, 2011; Steinmayr & Spinath, 2009), and college students (e.g., Elliot, Murayama, & Pekrun, 2011; Harackiewicz, Durik, Barron, Linnenbrink-Garcia, & Tauer, 2008; Pekrun, Elliot, & Maier, 2009), not much is known about this relationship for adult learners in distance education. As society and technologies are rapidly changing and the amount of information continues to increase at exponential rates (Nagy, Farmer, Bui, & Trancik, 2013) it has become increasingly important for people to keep up with these developments throughout their lives. Therefore, the group of adult learners is rapidly gaining both in size and importance. In a time-limited environment, distance education is a suitable educational alternative. Hence, the present study was conducted to investigate the relationship between goal orientation and academic performance in adults participating in distance education.
Distance Education
In our continuously changing society, employers often demand that employees continue to develop their professional knowledge and skills throughout their careers. As a result, formal adult...