| Anne D'Agostino
University of North Carolina at Greensboro
Assessing a social-cognitive model of achievement motivation
FINAL REPORT:
The purpose of the research was to test a proposed conceptual model of mathematics achievement motivation. The model suggests that students' positive beliefs and cognitions about self and context result in mastery goal orientations and expectancies for success, a relationship moderated by beliefs about ability (self-efficacy). In turn, mastery goal orientation and expectancies positively affect process cognitions (e.g., better learning strategies, preference for challenging tasks, increased effort and persistence), and these cognitions affect mathematics performance outcomes (e.g., more time spent on work and academic activities, better grades). On the other hand, if a student comes to an academic situation with negative beliefs about self and/or context, he or she is more likely to have performance goal orientations and expectancies for failure. These are believed to negatively affect process cognitions (e.g., less effective strategies, preference for easy tasks, decreased effort and persistence) and results in mathematics performance outcomes that reflect a lack of motivation to achieve (e.g., less time spent on work, little or no time spent on academic activities, lower grades and test scores). The sample was drawn from National Education Longitudinal Study (NELS) and included 2,254 students who were in-school (in or out of grade) and who completed all relevant items in the 8th, 10th, and 12th grades. These data allowed an examination of the model over time.
The results showed that beliefs about self, context, and efficacy related positively to mastery orientation, expectancies for future success, and strategy use. These were related positively to mathematics achievement outcomes. In contrast, performance orientation was negatively linked to the other variables in the model. Also, the results showed that beliefs about self and context, self-efficacy, expectancies, strategy use, and mathematics achievement outcomes did not change from 8th to 12th grade. Goal orientation, however, was not stable over time, suggesting that this may be responsive to contextual influences.
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