Why Grades Engender Performance-Avoidance Goals: The Mediating Role of Autonomous Motivation
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| Title: | Why Grades Engender Performance-Avoidance Goals: The Mediating Role of Autonomous Motivation |
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| Language: | English |
| Authors: | Pulfrey, Caroline, Buchs, Celine, Butera, Fabrizio |
| Source: | Journal of Educational Psychology. Aug 2011 103(3):683-700. |
| Availability: | American Psychological Association. Journals Department, 750 First Street NE, Washington, DC 20002-4242. Tel: 800-374-2721; Tel: 202-336-5510; Fax: 202-336-5502; e-mail: order@apa.org; Web site: http://www.apa.org/publications |
| Peer Reviewed: | Y |
| Physical Description: | |
| Page Count: | 18 |
| Publication Date: | 2011 |
| Document Type: | Journal Articles Reports - Research |
| Education Level: | Adult Education |
| Descriptors: | Expectation, Achievement Need, Motivation, Grading, Objectives, Experiments, Student Attitudes, Grades (Scholastic), Foreign Countries, Technical Education, Measures (Individuals), Adults, Educational Psychology |
| DOI: | 10.1037/a0023911 |
| ISSN: | 0022-0663 |
| Abstract: | Evaluation is an inescapable feature of academic life with regular grading and performance appraisals at school and at university. Although previous research has indicated that evaluation and grading in particular are likely to have a substantial impact on motivational processes, little attention has been paid to the relationship between grading and approach versus avoidance achievement goals, 2 fundamental concerns whenever evaluation is at stake. Three experiments, carried out in professional schools, revealed that expectation of a grade for a task, compared with no grade, consistently induced greater adoption of performance-avoidance, but not performance-approach, goals. Experiments 2 and 3 revealed that expectation of a grade, compared with no grade, consistently induced greater adoption of performance-avoidance goals even when grading was accompanied by a formative comment. Furthermore, Experiment 3 showed that reduced autonomous motivation measured after having completed a task for a grade versus no grade mediated the relationship between grading and adoption of performance-avoidance goals in a subsequent task. Results are discussed in the light of achievement goal and self-determination theory. (Contains 7 tables and 1 figure.) |
| Abstractor: | As Provided |
| Number of References: | 82 |
| Entry Date: | 2011 |
| Accession Number: | EJ936478 |
| Database: | ERIC |
| Abstract: | Evaluation is an inescapable feature of academic life with regular grading and performance appraisals at school and at university. Although previous research has indicated that evaluation and grading in particular are likely to have a substantial impact on motivational processes, little attention has been paid to the relationship between grading and approach versus avoidance achievement goals, 2 fundamental concerns whenever evaluation is at stake. Three experiments, carried out in professional schools, revealed that expectation of a grade for a task, compared with no grade, consistently induced greater adoption of performance-avoidance, but not performance-approach, goals. Experiments 2 and 3 revealed that expectation of a grade, compared with no grade, consistently induced greater adoption of performance-avoidance goals even when grading was accompanied by a formative comment. Furthermore, Experiment 3 showed that reduced autonomous motivation measured after having completed a task for a grade versus no grade mediated the relationship between grading and adoption of performance-avoidance goals in a subsequent task. Results are discussed in the light of achievement goal and self-determination theory. (Contains 7 tables and 1 figure.) |
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| ISSN: | 0022-0663 |
| DOI: | 10.1037/a0023911 |
