11 Matching Annotations
  1. Jun 2016
    1. p. 63

      "Research suggests that avoidance of challenge may be related to motives and goals in somewhat complex ways. Elliott and Dweck (1988), in an experimental study, found that when children were oriented toward mastery goals they were more likely to choose tasks described as challenging and offering opportunities to learn, regardless of their level of perceived ability. But when students were oriented toward performance goals, they chose challenging tasks that served to enhance others' high opinions of their abilities only if they perceived their ability to be high. Children who perceived their ability to be low and were oriented toward performance goals, in contrast, tended to choose tasks described as easy but that would avoid unfavourable judgments of their ability. Some students may feel they are in a double-bind, preferring easy work that does not threaten their self-worth, yet taking on difficult tasks in order to demonstrate their competence or superiority... Elliot and Church (1997) found that performance-approach goals were positively associated with measures of both challenge-avoidance (fear of failure) and challence-seeking motives (achievement motivation). Avoidance of challenge, then appears, to be positively associated with performance-avoidance goals and negatively related with matery goals, but may have a more complex relationship with performance-approach goals."

      In other words, the goal has to be to focus teaching and evaluation on the inculcation of mastery goals and the avoidance of situations in which students are encouraged to engage in performance-avoidance. Once they start engaging in performance avoidance, they then stop seeing challenge.

    2. pp. 70-71

      • Gheen and Midgley 1999 looked at classroom practices of sharing information about student work:
      • Where work was shared to "see who got the right answer" (relative ability purposes) and
      • to "get hints for when you have difficulty" (acquiring information purposes"

      No surprise:

      "They found that students' perceptions of the goal structure related to avoidance of novelty and challenge. When students perceived that their classrooms emphasized mastery goals, they reported lower levels of avoidance, but when they perceived their classrooms emphasized performance goals, they were more lilely to say that thei preferred to avoid novel and challenging work."

    3. p.70

      "Students' perceptions of a mastery classroom goal structure were associated with a lower level of help avoidance whereas their perceptions of a performance classroom goal structure were associated with a higher level of help avoidance. In classrooms where students perceived that the focus was on understanding, mastery, and the intrinsic value of learning, compared to classrooms where the focus was on competition and proving one's ability, students were less likely to avoid seeking help with their work when they needed it."

    1. ulnerability to helpless behavior in the context of failure on experimental tasks. In contrast, and also consistent with Dweck's prior work (Diener & Dweck, 1978, 1980; Dweck & Leggett, 1988; El liott & Dweck), mastery goals were associated with enhanced motivation during the critical phase of processing evaluative information on an important task, and this effect was not moderated by the level of the gra

      Mastery goals were associated with enhanced motivation, even in the context of a low grade.

      So if the focus is mastery, a low grade is motivating.

    2. Intrinsic value. We adapted items developed by Eccles (1983) to assess students' intrinsic value regarding their academic work in the class. This section of the sur vey asked students, "What is your opinion of this class along the following di mensions?" Students rated the "enjoyment of work" on a scale ranging from 1 (not at all enjoyable) to 7 (very enjoyable), "interest in the work" on a scale rang ing from 1 (very boring) to 7 (very interesting), and "liking what is learned" on a scale ranging from 1 (a little) to 7 (a lot). Alpha coefficients for the three items were .92 at Time 1 and .93 at Time 2

      Intrinsic value questions.

    3. In summary, our main goal was to examine how students' achievement goals are related to changes in self-efficacy, preference to avoid challenge, and intrin sic value in the face of evaluation. Early in the semester, we assessed students' achievement goals, self-efficacy, desire to avoid challenge, and intrinsic value. We assessed students' self-efficacy, desire to avoid challenge, and intrinsic value again immediately after they received their grades on their first major exam or paper. This design allowed us to examine the role of goals in the change in mo tivational constructs associated with performance feedback. Our main hypothe ses were (a) a mastery goal will be associated with enhanced motivation around receipt of grades (i.e., increased efficacy and value and lower preference for chal lenge avoidance); (b) a performance-avoidance goal will be associated with di minished motivation around receipt of grades (i.e., decreased efficacy and value and increased preference for challenge avoidance); and (c) the effects of a per formance-approach goal on changes in motivation will be moderated by grades. When students encounter low grades, a performance-approach goal will be relat ed to diminished motivation. When students receive high grades, a performance approach goal will be unrelated to changes in motivation.

      The method. Should see if I could replicate this.

    4. uccess and failure are attrib uted to effort (Ames, 1992). Even in the face of failure or obstacles, a mastery goal is associated with persistence (Ames, 1984; Diener & Dweck, 1978; Hong, Chiu, & Dweck, 1995; Stipek & Kowalski, 1989). When oriented toward a mas tery goal, success (in the case of high grades) bolsters motivation, whereas a lack of progress (in the case of low grades) signals more effort is needed and thus does not diminish motivation. Therefore, we expected a mastery goal to be associated with increases in self-efficacy, intrinsic value, and a decrease in preference to avoid challenge regardless of high or low grades.

      If grades are succeeding (i.e. developing a mastery goal, then high grades will bolster motivation by indicating success and low grades will not diminish motivation as they will be understood as simply signalling that more work is needed.

    5. We expected a mastery goal to be associated with increases in motivation in response to grades. A mastery goal is associated with construing exams as a chal lenge and incurring positive emotions, such as eagerness, hopefulness, and ex citement (McGregor & Elliot, 2002). It is also associated with the belief that in telligence is a malleable attribute that can be developed through effort (an incremental theory of intelligence; Dweck, 1999).

      If exams are understood as challenging, then they are seen as positive and a mastery goal results.

    6. udy, a mastery goal is positively associated and a performance-avoidance goal is nega tively associated with self-efficacy, challenge-seeking, and intrinsic value (Mid dleton & Midgley, 1997; Pajares, Britner, & Vahante, 2000; Skaalvik, 1997).

      Mastery goals are positively associated with "self-efficacy, challenge-seeking, and intrinsic value"; performance avoidance goals are negatively associated with these same values.

    7. mastery goal concerns a focus on developing competence and gaining understanding or mastery. I

      Mastery goal is an intrinsic motivation on mastery.