The role of achievement goals in completing a course assignment: Examining the effects of performance-approach and multiple goals

The role of achievement goals in completing a course assignment: Examining the effects of performance-approach and multiple goals

• Ng, Chi Hung School of Curriculum, Learning and Teaching, Faculty of Education, Griffith University, Australia

Open Learning, 21(1), 33-48, 2006

Routledge

2006

• Q Philosophy of Education, Educational System & School At Different Levels
  • QG Adult, Lifelong & Continuing Education
    • QGE Distance Education

Foreign Countries Correlation Achievement Need Assignments Goal Orientation Distance Education Surveys Hong Kong

• Hong Kong

• 1997.7 onwards

• Post-Secondary Education

This study examines the relationship between achievement goals and some important learning-related variables in the completion of a course assignment. The research on achievement goals is reviewed and two contentious issues—the nature of performance goals and the effects of multiple goals—are highlighted. Three hundred and seventy-three Chinese distance learners in Hong Kong participated in a mailed survey. A correlation analysis revealed that their mastery goals were adaptive to learning; but, in contrast, work-avoidance goals were maladaptive to the processes of completing an assignment. A mixed pattern of association was found with performance-approach goals. Using a median-split technique, the participants were classified into four different groups of 'multiple-goal learners'. MANOVA tests showed that mastery-focused learners had the most adaptive pattern of learning and engagement in completing the assignment, followed in order by balanced-goal learners, performance-focused learners and performance-anxious learners. The results are discussed in light of achievement goal research conducted using campus-based students.
[Copyright of Open Learning is the property of Routledge. Full article may be available at the publisher's website:
http://dx.doi.org/10.1080/02680510500472189]

• English

Journal Articles

• 02680513

• 10.1080/02680510500472189

https://bibliography.lib.eduhk.hk/en/bibs/33761e11

2010-09-27