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The unrecognized potential of potential-based achievement goals
1Department of Quantitative Economics, School of Business and Economics, Maastricht University, Maastricht, The Netherlands.
The British Journal of Educational Psychology
|December 14, 2024
Summary
Potential-based goals are crucial for understanding student learning and academic performance. This study highlights their underappreciated role in achievement goal frameworks, urging their inclusion in future research.
Area of Science:
- Educational Psychology
- Learning Sciences
- Achievement Goal Theory
Background:
- Growth-oriented achievement goals, including potential-based and personal best goals, have been overlooked in recent research.
- Current goal theories may be incomplete by not integrating potential-based goal constructs.
Purpose of the Study:
- To emphasize the importance of potential-based goals within the 3x2 achievement goal framework.
- To highlight the underappreciated role of potential-based goals in empirical educational research.
Main Methods:
- Utilized confirmatory factor analyses to validate an eight-factor measurement model of achievement goals.
- Employed correlational and structural equation modeling to analyze relationships between goal constructs, learning dispositions, and academic performance.
- Sample included 10,079 international undergraduate students across nine academic cohorts (2015-2024).
Main Results:
- All eight achievement goal constructs were validated through first and second-order factor analysis.
- Goal setting facets significantly predicted various learning mindsets, including intelligence beliefs, motivation, and engagement.
- Potential-based goals demonstrated predictive power for academic performance.
Conclusions:
- Potential-based goals are pivotal in understanding learning dispositions and predicting academic performance, especially in criterion-referenced grading systems.
- It is essential to incorporate potential-based goals into measurement instruments for achievement goal frameworks.
- Prioritizing potential-based goals may be necessary for a comprehensive understanding of intrapersonal goal dynamics.
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