Which Goals Do You Pursue? Examining Achievement Goals of Secondary School Students

Beck, J., & Daumiller, M.

Abstract

Goals that students pursue at school determine learning engagement and academic success. Theoretically, the two fundamental types of goals (i.e., mastery and performance goals) can be distinguished based on their valence (approach and avoidance of goals) and additional facets (task and learning goals; appearance and norm goals). However, empirical investigations of this structure are rare, particularly for secondary school students. The present study aims to (a) confirm the existence of the before-described achievement goals in secondary school students, and (b) to investigate this theoretically derived goal structure along with the validation of a questionnaire for their assessment. We modified an existing scale to measure these differentiated goals in secondary education students. Cognitive interviews with 20 students provided initial evidence that the goals therein are indeed understood and pursued by students. Subsequently, N = 1,131 secondary school students filled out the questionnaire. Multilevel confirmatory factor analyses confirmed the structure of the proposed hexagonal structure of goals as well as scalar invariance across gender, age groups (lower vs. upper secondary classes), and measurements six weeks apart. Correlations with an older and less differentiated questionnaire measuring achievement goal orientations (Spinath et al., 2012) confirmed convergent and discriminant validity. School grades correlated weakly with mastery goals and the normative (but not the appearance) component of performance goals. Taken together, these results stress the importance of distinguishing between goals that students purse at secondary school – especially within performance goals. Furthermore, our study showed that achievement goals are finely differentiated as early as lower secondary education.