The purpose of this study was to investigate the effects of classroom's goal structure on goal orientations and mathematics achievement. The study was largely divided into two parts. The purpose of study 1 was performed to test the prediction that the...
The purpose of this study was to investigate the effects of classroom's goal structure on goal orientations and mathematics achievement. The study was largely divided into two parts. The purpose of study 1 was performed to test the prediction that there are three independent dimensions of goal orientations(mastery goal orientation, performance-approach goal orientation, performance-avoidance goal orientation), and to specify the relations between goal orientations(mastery goal orientation, performance-approach goal orientation, and performance-avoidance goal orientation) and motivational variables(perceived ability, persistence, and math anxiety). Two hundred seventy-eight sixth-grade Korean children(145 boys and 133 girls) from four elementary school in metropolitan city of Daegu participated in this study 1. The results of this study 1 were as follows : 1. Exploratory factor analysis with varimax rotation showed that three factor model provided a good fit to the theoretically determined subscale of the goal orientations scale. 2. Correlational analysis showed that performance-approach goal orientation was positively correlated with both mastery goal orientation and performance-avoidance goal orientation, but mastery goal orientation was not significantly correlated to performance-avoidance goal orientation. 3. Canonical correlational analysis showed that variance of motivational variables(perceived ability, persistence, and math anxiety) were explained about 45% by goal orientations(mastery goal orientation, performance-approach goal orientation, and performance-avoidance goal orientation) The primary purpose of experimental study 2 was to investigate the effects of classroom's goal structures[Mastery Goal Structure(MGS), Performance-approach Goal Structure(PPGS), and Performance-avoidance Goal Structure(PVGS)] on goal orientations (mastery goal orientation, performance-approach goal orientation, performance-avoidance goal orientation) and mathematics achievement in mathematics environments. One hundred two sixth-grade Korean children(54 boys and 48 girls) from an elementary school in metropolitan city of Daegu participated in this experiment. Students were assigned to one of the 3 classroom goal structure conditions. The results of this experimental study 2 were as follows: Results showed the significance of classroom's goal structure effects on mastery goal orientation and mathematics achievement. 1. The MGS was significantly more effective on mastery goal orientation than the PVGS. However there was no significance between the PPGS and the MGS, and no significance between the PPGS and the PVGS. 2. The MGS was significantly more effective on mathematics achievement than the PVGS. However there was no significance between the PPGS and the MGS, and no significance between the PPGS and the PVGS. These results suggest that educators should develop a mastery goal climate in their teaching contexts, which means to stress the importance of understanding, the process of thinking, monitoring the learner's progress, learning for its own sake, and cooperative learning rather than stressing only the outcomes in the mathematics learning environment.