Theories of Motivation in Education: an Integrative Framework

Several major theories have been established in research on motivation in education to describe, explain, and predict the direction, initiation, intensity, and persistence of learning behaviors. The most commonly cited theories of academic motivation include expectancy-value theory, social cognitive theory, self-determination theory, interest theory, achievement goal theory, and attribution theory. To gain a deeper understanding of the similarities and differences among these prominent theories, we present an integrative framework based on an action model (Heckhausen & Heckhausen, 2018). The basic model is deliberately parsimonious, consisting of six stages of action: the situation, the self, the goal, the action, the outcome, and the consequences. Motivational constructs from each major theory are related to these determinants in the course of action, mainly revealing differences and to a lesser extent commonalities. In the integrative model, learning outcomes represent a typical indicator of goal-directed behavior. Associated recent meta-analyses demonstrate the empirical relationship between the motivational constructs of the six central theories and academic achievement. They provide evidence for the explanatory value of each theory for students’ learning.

Unpacking classroom goal structures based on students’ own words

Achievement goal theory research, which investigates students’ perceptions of the classroom climate, has mainly focused on teacher practices from a deductive perspective. However, this appears to hinder a fuller understanding of all the factors that influence students’ perceptions of the classroom goal structures (CGS). Therefore, using a combination of inductive and deductive approaches, a series of three studies was conducted to identify new elements in students’ perceptions of CGS in relation to mathematics. In Study 1 (N = 340, 5th–7th graders), a self-reporting Hungarian-language questionnaire was developed to measure CGS. In Study 2 (N = 250, 7th graders), the same questionnaire was supplemented with open-ended questions about the classroom climate. Based on a qualitative analysis of these open-ended questions, new scales, one each for the factors of helping peers, recognition by peers, and image of the classroom community, were created in Study 3 (N = 438, 6th–8th graders) to explore their relationship to classroom goal structures. Factor analysis confirmed the expected structure, except for recognition by peers, which had to be divided into two factors with the new construct known as teasing peers. Findings confirm the relevance of a combined, inductive–deductive approach in examining CGS.

Students’ Performance in Physical Education: The Role of Differential Achievement Goals and Self-Regulated Learning

The purpose of this study was to examine the relationship between differential achievement goals and self-regulated learning, as well as motivational mechanisms’ consequences for performance in physical education. This was done by using the 2 × 2 achievement goals framework, and the cyclical model for self-regulated learning. The participants (N = 571, 51.7% girls) were physical education students in grades 11–13 from two upper secondary schools in Norway. A cross-sectional questionnaire was conducted, and data were analysed with a multiple-regression-based structural equation model. The modified structural model yielded an adequate fit (X2 = [df = 124] 429.79, p < 0.01; RMSEA = 0.07; CFI = 0.93), and results revealed that achievement goals have consequences for students’ self-regulation in physical education. More specifically, mastery goals have a positive association with self-regulation, whereas performance avoidance is found to have a negative association. Further, the results support claims that self-regulated learning plays a role in students’ performance. Finally, the model showed that self-regulation mediates the relationship between mastery approach goals and performance avoidance goals in relation to performance.

Rural students’ achievement goal orientation choices: A qualitative analysis of the influential individuals and factors

This qualitative study aimed to investigate the influences on 32 rural Iranian high school students’ adoption of achievement goals. To this end, the high school students took part in individual semi-structured interviews. The outcomes indicated the high school students’ goal orientation adoption was impacted by a host of significant individuals in four contexts: (1) school (e.g. teachers, classmates), (2) family (e.g. parents, relatives), (3) rural community (e.g. neighbors and rural university graduates) and (4) media (e.g. counselors on TV). Likewise, various factors (i.e. social, psychological, economic, educational, rural, biological and religious) also appeared to influence their achievement goal adoption. Results may have implications for various stakeholders such as educational authorities, policy makers, researchers and significant others (e.g. teachers, counselors, parents, among many others).

When pursuing bad goals for good reasons makes it even worse: a social value approach to performance-avoidance goal pursuit

Consistently in achievement goal research, pursuing performance-avoidance goals has been associated with a decrease in achievement. Less is known to what extent this effect depends on the reasons underlying these goals' endorsement. The present research uses a social value approach to assess how do performance-avoidance goals' effects on achievement depend on the reasons anchored in social utility (goal endorsed in order to succeed) and in social desirability (goal endorsed in order to please one's teachers). Based on five correlational samples meta-analyzed in Study 1, results showed that perceiving performance-avoidance goals as socially useful increased the negative effect of these goals on achievement. This moderating effect was replicated experimentally in Study 2. These findings support the relevance of studying achievement goal complexes and illustrate that performance-avoidance goals may lead to deleterious consequences even when endorsed for seemingly good reasons.

A meta-analysis of induced achievement goals: the moderating effects of goal standard and goal framing

In this paper, we present a meta-analysis of the motivational and performance effects of experimentally induced achievement goals and the moderating effects of goal standard and goal framing; comprising 90 studies which provided 235 effect sizes (11,247 participants). The findings show that, relative to performance-approach and performance-avoidance goals and no-goals, induced mastery-approach goals enhanced performance, but not motivation. With regards to the goal standard used in the inducement, mastery-approach goals related to better performance than performance-approach goals, when mastery-approach goals were based on task-referenced standards or when social comparison was used as a standard for inducing performance-approach goals. With regards to the goal framing used in the inducement, mastery-approach goals were more beneficial when achievement goals were induced by means of goal content. We therefore conclude that goal framing and goal standard should be taken into consideration in achievement goal research and practice.

Antecedents of Employees’ Goal Orientation and the Effects of Goal Orientation on E-Learning Outcomes: The Roles of Intra-Organizational Environment

Organizational learning is beneficial for the maintenance and development of an organization’s long-term competitive advantages. However, organizational learning can be achieved only through the learning carried out by individual members. Therefore, employees’ learning plays a critical role in companies that pursue sustainable management. E-learning allows employees to learn without any time or space constraints, which strengthens and improves organizational learning capacity. The participants of this study were employees in small and medium-sized enterprises. This study explored and identified the ways in which these employees’ perceived intra-organizational environment (including the organization’s commitment to learning and a competitive psychological climate) affects their learning outcomes through their goal orientations and computer anxiety (CA). A questionnaire was administered to the employees who have used an Enterprise Resource Planning (ERP) e-learning platform. The results indicated that an organization’s commitment to learning and its competitive psychological climate affect e-learning outcomes, with employees’ goal orientations and CA acting as mediator variables. Furthermore, in contrast to past studies, this study found that the organization’s competitive psychological climate could strengthen employees’ learning motivation (i.e., learning goal orientation) and their desire to perform well (i.e., proving goal orientation), thus improving their e-learning outcomes. Finally, the empirical results were used to develop recommendations for high-ranking executives, department managers, and human resource departments.

Children’s and Mothers’ Achievement Goal Orientations and Self-Efficacy: Dyadic Contributions to Students’ Well-Being

Starting from the basic idea that identifying predictive family factors for children’s well-being is among the levels of the psychology of sustainable human development, our study aimed to investigate the impact of mothers’ achievement goal orientations and parental self-efficacy on their children’s academic well-being, considering children’s own achievement goals as a mediator variable. The entire sample comprised 350 participants: 175 children (42.86% boys) and their respective mothers. Children were enrolled in the 4th grade (n = 85; Mage = 10.44, SD = 0.49), in the 8th grade (n = 62; Mage = 14.45, SD = 0.53), and in the 12th grade (n = 28; Mage = 18.39, SD = 0.62). The results indicated that mothers’ motivational orientations had a strong effect on their children’s corresponding motivational orientations. Mothers’ achievement goal orientations and parental self-efficacy had significant effects on children’s well-being, mediated by children’s goal orientations. Children’s well-being was positively predicted by mothers’ mastery and performance-approach goal orientations, with variations between age groups. The importance of the parental motivational orientations in the development of the children’s corresponding orientations and well-being suggests that changing academic adaptation might be possible by operating early interventions at the parents’ level. Further research is necessary to explore why performance-approach goals had a positive impact on well-being in this cultural context, as previous studies revealed that this type of goal orientation may be detrimental to well-being.

Effects of performance goals and social norms on academic dishonesty in a test

BACKGROUND

Previous research has shown that achievement goals affect the frequency of academic dishonesty. However, mixed findings suggest that especially the effect of performance goals might depend on contextual factors.

AIMS

We wanted to investigate whether crucial aspects of the achievement situation influence the magnitude of the effect of performance goals (here: focused on appearance) on dishonesty. Specifically, we propose that social norms regarding the acceptance of dishonesty moderate the positive effect of performance goals on academic dishonesty.

SAMPLE

We sampled 105 German university students. They were teacher trainees, mostly in their first year at university and on average 20.6 (SD = 3.6) years old (72.4% female).

METHOD

We conducted a 2 (induced appearance goals vs. no goal induction) × 2 (cheating confederate vs. no observable cheating behaviour by this person) experiment. A manipulation check confirmed that the manipulation of appearance goals was successful. Cheating behaviour was observed by a confederate student and subsequently classified by two raters. Additionally, participants' dishonesty in self-presentation questions was measured using deviations from baseline measures.

RESULTS

The induction of appearance goals only led to increased cheating when the social norm suggested that cheating behaviour was an acceptable way to increase performance (i.e., cheating confederate condition). For deceiving, we found a positive main effect of appearance goals. Appearance goals mediated these effects from goal manipulation on academic dishonesty.

CONCLUSIONS

Taken together, our results highlight that the mixed findings on the effect of performance goals on academic dishonesty might be due to uninvestigated moderators such as social norms. Future research should build on these findings to identify additional moderators.

Using Personal Values to Understand the Motivational Basis of Amity Goal Orientation

Values are broad motivations that can serve as the basis for goals. We propose that values can be used to understand the motivational basis of amity goal orientation, a prosocial goal orientation within achievement situations. We offer theory and empirical evidence relating personal values to amity goal orientation and other achievement goal orientations. Specifically, the results of three studies and a mini meta-analysis suggest that the prosocial value of benevolence is positively related to amity goal orientation and can be interpreted as the motivational basis of amity goal orientation. Furthermore, power values are positively related to performance-approach goal orientation; self-direction values are positively related to mastery goal orientation, and security values are positively related to performance-avoidance goal orientation. These findings can explain the pattern of correlations previously found among achievement goal orientations, and open up the potential for new research on amity goal orientation as well as other value-based achievement goal orientations.

Emerging Trends and Future Directions for the Field of Motivation Psychology: A Special Issue in Honor of Prof. Dr. Willy Lens

This special issue is devoted to Prof. Dr. W. Lens, who passed away end of August 2014 while he was vacationing. The special issue is meant to honor Willy’s intellectual contribution to the field of motivation psychology and his enthusiastic and devoted mentorship, which has spurred many of us to study motivation-related topics. In line with Willy’s interest and extensive network, the special issue brings together scholars from diverse theoretical perspectives (i.e., Achievement Goal Theory, Future Time Perspective Theory, and Self-Determination Theory) and diverse cultural backgrounds (i.e., China, Peru, Greece, Portugal, Belgium, US, Australia, Canada). We introduce the special issue by highlighting four emerging trends that characterize contemporary motivation psychology and that were central to Willy’s work: (a) multiperspectivism (i.e., a reliance on multiple motivational frameworks); (b) the diversity of motives and goals that underlie behavior (i.e., motivational heterogeneity); (c) interest in motives for non-participation; and (d) the issue of universalism versus relativism (i.e., the question whether there exist universal motivational processes or whether these processes are contingent upon sociodemographic, personality-based, and contextual factors). Each of the eight contributions in the special issue touch upon one or more of these emerging themes, which are critically discussed in conjunction with a number of directions for future research.

Building on the Enriched Hierarchical Model of Achievement Motivation: Autonomous and Controlling Reasons Underlying Mastery Goals

Two motivational theories - the Achievement Goal Theory and Self-Determination Theory - have recently been combined to explain students' motivation, making it possible to study the "what" and the "why" of learners' achievement strivings. The present study built on this approach by (a) investigating whether the distinction between autonomous or volitional and controlling or pressuring reasons can be meaningfully applied to the adoption of mastery-avoidance goals, (b) investigating the concurrent and prospectiverelations between mastery-avoidance goals and their underlying reasons and learning strategies when mastery-approach goals and their underlying reasons were also considered, and by (c) incorporating psychological need experiences as an explanatory variable in the relation between achievement motives (i.e., the motive to succeed and motive to avoid failure) and both mastery goals and their underlying reasons. In two Turkish university students samples (N = 226, M_age = 22.36; N = 331, M_age = 19.5), autonomous and controlling reasons appeared applicable to mastery-avoidance goals and regression and path analysis further showed that mastery-avoidance goals and their underlying autonomous reasons fail to predicted learning strategies over and above the pursuit of mastery-approach goals and their underlying reasons. Finally, need experiences were established as mediators between achievement motives and both mastery goals and their underlying reasons.

Achievement Goals and their Underlying Goal Motivation: Does it Matter Why Sport Participants Pursue their Goals?

This study examined whether the good or bad outcomes associated with mastery-approach (MAP) and performance-approach (PAP) goals depend on the extent to which they are motivated by autonomous or controlled motivation. A sample of 515 undergraduate students who participated in sport completed measures of achievement goals, motivation of achievement goals, perceived goal attainment, sport satisfaction, and both positive and negative affect. Results of moderated regression analyses revealed that the positive relations of both MAP and PAP goals with perceived goal attainment were stronger for athletes pursuing these goals with high level of autonomous goal motivation. Also, the positive relations between PAP goals and both sport satisfaction and positive affect were stronger at high levels of autonomous goal motivation and controlled goal motivation. The shape of all these significant interactions was consistent with tenets of Self-Determination Theory as controlled goal motivation was negatively associated with positive affect and sport satisfaction and positively associated with negative affect. Overall, these findings demonstrated the importance of considering goal motivation in order to better understand the conditions under which achievement goals are associated with better experiential and performance outcomes in the lives of sport participants.

The 2 × 2 Standpoints Model of Achievement Goals

In the present research, we proposed and tested a 2 × 2 standpoints model of achievement goals grounded in the development-demonstration and approach-avoidance distinctions. Three empirical studies are presented. Study 1 provided evidence supporting the structure and psychometric properties of a newly developed measure of the goals of the 2 × 2 standpoints model. Study 2 documented the predictive utility of these goal constructs for intrinsic motivation: development-approach and development-avoidance goals were positive predictors, and demonstration-avoidance goals were a negative predictor of intrinsic motivation. Study 3 documented the predictive utility of these goal constructs for performance attainment: Demonstration-approach goals were a positive predictor and demonstration-avoidance goals were a negative predictor of exam performance. The conceptual and empirical contributions of the present research were discussed within the broader context of existing achievement goal theory and research.

Structure and Relationships of University Instructors' Achievement Goals

The present study examines the achievement goals of university instructors, particularly the structure of such goals, and their relationship to biographic characteristics, other aspects of instructors’ motivation, and teaching quality. Two hundred and fifty-one university instructors (184 without Ph.D., 97 with Ph.D., thereof 51 full professors; 146 males, 92 females) answered a questionnaire measuring achievement goals, self-efficacy, and enthusiasm in altogether 392 courses. Teaching quality was assessed using reports from 9,241 students who were attending these courses. Confirmatory factor analyses revealed mastery, performance approach, performance avoidance, work avoidance, and relational goals as being distinguishable from each other. Distinct relationships were found between different instructors’ achievement goals, and gender, age, and career status as well as self-efficacy and enthusiasm. Hierarchical linear models suggested positive associations of instructors’ mastery goals with teaching quality, while negative associations were indicated for performance avoidance goals and work avoidance goals in relation to teaching quality. Exploratory analyses conducted due to a quite large correlation between performance approach and performance avoidance goals indicated that for university instructors, differentiating performance goals into appearance and normative components might also be adequate. All in all, the study highlights the auspiciousness of the theoretical concept of university instructors’ achievement goals and contributes to making it comprehensively accessible.

Rethinking Approach and Avoidance in Achievement Contexts: The Perspective of Dynamical Systems

An integrative model of approach and avoidance goals in achievement contexts is proposed based on the concepts and principles of nonlinear dynamical systems. These goals are conceptualized as self-organizing systems in which information relevant to competence expectancies and perceptions of benefit and threat for the self is integrated with respect to either a single coherent state ( static integration) or 2 conflicting coherent states ( dynamic integration). Mathematical equations depict the emergence of approach and avoidance attractor dynamics from the proposed integration process. The model specifies the conditions under which states of goal involvement will display patterns of resistance (stability), oscillation between approach and avoidance (instability), or reversal (nonlinear change). As a result, this model of approach and avoidance goals equips previous dynamical models of self-regulation with greater social–cognitive substance. It also provides a parsimonious account of achievement motivation and resolves lingering inconsistencies and uncertainties in the achievement goal literature. Moreover, the dynamical systems approach, on which the model is based, provides a heuristic framework for generating new predictions regarding the ebb and flow of approach and avoidance in achievement contexts.

The nature and dimensions of achievement goals: mastery, evaluation, competition, and self-presentation goals

The present study aimed to clarify the nature and dimensions of achievement goals and to examine structural differences in students' goals across school levels. Participants were 134 students from 5th and 6th grades, and 423 students from 7th to 9th grades. A variety of achievement goals were assessed, including mastery goals and several performance-related goals representing three main dimensions: competition, self-presentation, and valence. Two alternative models were tested, using confirmatory factor analysis. For middle-school students a three factor model with presentation, competition, and simple evaluation/mastery goals, was found χ²(132, N = 134) = 160.9, p < .001; CFI = .94; RMSEA = .04, 95%CI [.02 - .06]. In the junior-high sample, one avoidance factor, one competition factor, and a simple evaluation/mastery factor, best fitted the data χ²(114, N = 423) = 269.8638 p < .001; CFI = .93; RMSEA = .06, 95%CI [.05 - .07] thus suggesting that distinct dimensions organize younger and older students' motivation. However, common to both grade levels was the existence of (a) separate but low incidence competition goals, and (b) simple evaluation goals, which encompass neither self-presentation nor competition, and are closely linked to mastery goals. Moreover, significant differences were found in the relative importance attached by students to the different types of goals (p < .001 for all comparisons), both at middle-school F(2, 266) = 220.98; p < .001; η2 = .624) and at junior-high school F(2, 820) = 464.4; p < .001; η2 = .531.

Reasons for academic honesty and dishonesty with solutions: a study of pharmacy and medical students in New Zealand

This paper presents students' views about honest and dishonest actions within the pharmacy and medical learning environments. Students also offered their views on solutions to ameliorating dishonest action. Three research questions were posed in this paper: (1) what reasons would students articulate in reference to engaging in dishonest behaviours? (2) What reasons would students articulate in reference to maintaining high levels of integrity? (3) What strategies would students suggest to decrease engagement in dishonest behaviours and/or promote honest behaviours? The design of the study incorporated an initial descriptive analysis to interpret students' responses to an 18-item questionnaire about justifications for dishonest action. This was followed by a qualitative analysis of students' commentaries in reference to why students would engage in either honest or dishonest action. Finally a qualitative analysis was conducted on students' views regarding solutions to dishonest action. The quantitative results showed that students were more likely to use time management and seriousness justifications for dishonest actions. The qualitative findings found that students' actions (honest or dishonest) were guided by family and friends, the need to do well, issues of morality and institutional guidelines. Students suggested that dishonest action could be ameliorated by external agencies and polarised views between punitive and rewards-based mechanisms were offered. These results suggest that these students engaged in dishonest action for various reasons and solutions addressing dishonest action need to consider diverse mechanisms that likely extend beyond the educational institution.