Increasing Students’ Mathematics Achievement at University by Changing Their Non-Mastery Goals into Mastery Learning Goals

Authors

  • Gulseren Sekreter Department of Mathematics, Faculty of Education, Ishik University, Erbil, Iraq

DOI:

https://doi.org/10.23918/ijsses.v5i1p211

Keywords:

Achievement Goal theory, Motivation Related Questions Based on Theories, Mathematics Achievement

Abstract

Despite the implementation of various motivation theories suggested by researchers, the achievements of students in mathematics have persistently been poor, hence there is a great need to explore the best ways to increase students’ achievement in mathematics. The goals that students have in the process of study are essential for reaching success. Thus, the aim of this study is to investigate the influence of the achievement goal motivation theory on students’ learning outcomes in mathematics. Three types of goal orientation were specified in this study, which are mastery-learning goal orientation (MG), performance-approach goal orientation (PAG), and performance-avoidance goal orientation (PAvG). The research asserts that possessing mastery-learning goal motivation has a more positive impact on university students’ academic achievement than the performance approach goal orientation, while the performance-avoidance goal orientation has a negative impact. This research is a quantitative study and experiment. Experimental study was held in 2015/2016 academic year at private Suleyman Sah University in Turkey with 39 students majoring in Business and Administrative Science, which would define, whether, as a result of teaching, following the offered model, the students of the experimental group would change their learning goals and improve their academic achievement. The results show that mastery-learning goal orientation is the best fit for achievement in mathematics at university. The experiment held according to the model developed by the researcher revealed that the model was really effective and helped many students who were initially performance- approach or performance-avoidance goal-oriented to change their goals into mastery goals.

References

Ames, C. (1992). Classrooms: Goals, structures, and student motivation. Journal of Educational Psychology, 84, p.261-271.

Anderman, E. M. & Wolters, C. A. (2006). Goals, values, and affect: Influences on student motivation. In P. Alexander, & P. Winne, Handbook of Educational Psychology (p. 369-389). Mahwah, NJ: Earlbaum.

Bal, A.P. (2015). Examination of the mathematical problem-solving beliefs and success levels of primary school teacher candidates through the variables of mathematical success and gender. Educational Science: Theory and Practice,15, 5, 1373-1390.

Bandura, A. (1994). Self-Efficacy. In Ramachaudran, V.S. (Ed.) Encyclopedia of Human Behavior, 4, p. 71-81.

Bandura, A. (1997). Self Efficacy: The Exercise of Control. New York: Freeman.

Bandura, A., Barbaranelli, C., Caprara, G. V., & Pastorelli, C. (2001). Self-efficacy beliefs as shapers of children’s aspiratios and career trajjectories. Child Development, 72, p. 187-206.

Barnett, R.A., Ziegler, M.R., & Byleen, K.E. (2011). Calculus for Business, Economics, Life Sciences, and Social Sciences. Boston: Global Edition. Pearson.

Chue, K.L.& Nie, Y. (2016). International students’ motivation and learning approach: A comparison with local students. Journal of International Students, 6(3), 678-699.

Covington, M.V. (2000). Goal theory, motivation, and school achievement: An integrative review. Annual Review Psychology, 51, 171-200.

Covington, M.V., & Omelich, C. L. (1979). Effort: The double-edged sword in school achievement. Journal of Educational Psychololy, 71, p. 169-82.

Dweck, C.S. & Leggett, E.L. (1988). A social cognitive approach to motivation and personality. Psychology Review, 95, p. 256-273.

Elliot, A. & Church, M. (1997). A hierarchical model of approach and avoidance achievement motivation. Journal of Personality and Social Psychology, 72, p. 218-232.

Elliot, A. & McGregor, H. (1999). Test anxiety and the hierarchical model of approach and avoidance achievement motivation. Journal of Personality and Social Psychology, 76, p. 628-644.

Federici, R.A., Skaalvik, E. M., & Tangen, T. N. (2015). Students’ perceptions of the goal structure in mathematics classrooms: Relations with goal orientations, mathematics anxiety, and help-seeking behavior. International Education Studies, 8(3), 146-158.

Harackiewicz, J. M., Barron, K. E., Pintrich, P. R., Elliot, A. J., & Thrash, T. M. (2002). Revision of achievement goal theory: Necessary and illuminating. Journal of Educational Psychology, 94, 638–645.

Jones, G. R., Jennifer, M. G., & Hill, C. (2000). Contemporary Management. Boston: McGraw-Hill Higher Education.

Kaplan, A., & Maehr, M. L. (2007). The contributions and prospects of goal orientation theory. Educational Psychology Review, 19, 141-184.

Lahey, J. (2014). Teaching math to people who think they hate it. The Atlantic, October 6. Retrieved November 2014 from https://theatlantic.com/education/archive/2014/10/teaching-math-to-people-who-think-they-hate-it/381125/

Law, W., Elliot, A., & Murayama, K. (2012). Perceived competence moderates the relation between performance-approach and performance-avoidance goals. Journal of Educational Psychology, 104(3), 806-819.

Lloyd, C. (2016). Does our approach to teaching math fail even the smartest kids? Great!schools, February 3. Retrieved March 3, 2016 from https://greatschools.org/gk/articles/why-americas-smartest-students-fail-math/

Maslow, A.H. (1943). A Theory of Human Motivation. Psychological Review, 50(4), p. 370-396.

Meece, J.L., Blumenfeld, P.C., & Hoyle, R.H. (1988). Students’ goal orientations and cognitive engagement in classroom activities. Journal of Educational Psychology, 80(4), p. 514-523.

Middleton, M.J. & Midgley, C. (1997). Avoiding the demonstration of lack of ability: An underexplored aspect of goal theory. Journal of Educational Psychology, 89, 710-718.

Midgley, C., Kaplan, A., Middleton, M., Urdan, T., Maehr, M. L., Hicks, L., . . . Roeser, R. W. (1998). Development and Validation of Scales Assessing Students’ Achievement Goal Orientation. Contemporary Educational Psychology, 23, p. 113-131.

Mirzaei, F., Phang, F. A., Sulaiman, S., Kashefi, H., & Ismail, Z. (2012). Mastery goals, performance goals, students’ beliefs and academic success: Metacognition as a mediator. Social and Behavioral Sciences , 46, 3603 – 3608.

Pajares, F., Britner, S., & Valiante, G. (2000). Relation between achievement goals and self-beliefs of middle school students in writing and science. Contemporary Educational Psychology, 25, 406-422.

Senko, C., Hulleman, J.M., & Harackiewicz, C. (2011). Achievement goal theory at the crossroads: Old controversies, current challenges, and new directions. Educational Psychologist, 46, 1, 26-7.

Skaalvik, E. (1997). Self-enhancing and self-defeating ego orientation: Relations with task and avoidance orientation, achievement, self-perceptions, and anxiety. Journal of Educational Psychology, 89, p. 71-81.

Urdan, T. (2004). Using multiple methods to assess students’ perceptions of classroom goal structure . European Psychologist , 9(4), 222-231.

Wigfield, A. (1994). Expectancy-value theory of achievement motivation: A developmental perspective. Educational Psychology Review, 6, p. 49-78.

Wolters, C. A. (2003). Regulation of motivation: Evaluating an underemphasized aspect of self-regulated learning. Educational Psychologist, 38, p. 189-205.

Downloads

Published

01.09.2018

Issue

Section

Articles

How to Cite

Sekreter, G. (2018). Increasing Students’ Mathematics Achievement at University by Changing Their Non-Mastery Goals into Mastery Learning Goals. International Journal of Social Sciences & Educational Studies, 5(1), 211-229. https://doi.org/10.23918/ijsses.v5i1p211

Similar Articles

1-10 of 343

You may also start an advanced similarity search for this article.