Student perceptions of classroom achievement goals as predictors of belonging and content instrumentality

• Published in: Social psychology of education Vol. 15; no. 1; pp. 97 - 107
• Main Author: Walker, Christopher O.
• Format: Journal Article
• Language: English
• Published: Dordrecht Springer Netherlands 01.03.2012; Springer; Springer Nature B.V
• Subjects: Academic Achievement; Achievement Need; Behavior Patterns; Education; Educational Environment; Educational psychology; Goal Orientation; Goal setting; High School Students; Learner Engagement; Mastery Learning; Motivation; Personality and Social Psychology; Predictor Variables; Rural Schools; Sociology of Education; Student Adjustment; Student Attitudes; Student School Relationship; Motivation; Perceived instrumentality; Classroom achievement goals; Belonging
• ISSN: 1381-2890; 1573-1928
• DOI: 10.1007/s11218-011-9165-z

The goal of the current study was to examine the predictive relationships among a set of cognitive-motivational variables that have been found in previous studies to support academic achievement. Student perception of a classroom’s achievement goal structure (classroom mastery, classroom performance-approach, classroom performance-avoidance) was used as the primary set of predictor variables, while student perceptions of belonging and subject matter instrumentality were used as dependent variables. There were 227 participants in the current study each of whom were enrolled in a rural high school in the Midwestern United States. Results indicated that the classroom level goal orientation was, in fact, predictive of belonging and perceived instrumentality. Specifically, classroom mastery goals and classroom performance-approach goals were found to positively relate to both belonging and perceived instrumentality. Implications of the aforementioned relationships are discussed.