Inroduction
This study is geared towards assessing the students’ motivation towards learning, which is a strong predictor of students’ achievement. The researchers found the need to have this study because they recognized the fact that there are two factors influencing students’ underachievement and subsequent dropping-out of college.
Self-efficacy and goal orientation
“Self-efficacy refers to peoples’ judgments about their abilities to complete a task. Goal orientations refer to the motives that students have for completing tasks, which may include developing and improving ability (mastery goals), demonstrating ability (performance-approach goals), and hiding lack of ability (performance-avoidance goals)” (Hsieh, Sullivan and Guerra, 2007).
Specifically, this paper studied the difference between goal orientation and self-efficacy by using two distinct groups of students: college students with “good academic standing (GPA of 2.0 or higher)” and students who are considered to be on “academic probation (GPA of less than 2.0)”.
Based on the data presented, self-efficacy and mastery goals are directly related to academic standing. This relationship can be discussed in a way that if one increases, the other automatically increases too. This can be in a manner that if self-efficacy showed higher results, then academic standing will prove to be better also and vice versa. On the other hand, data results also stated that performance-avoidance goals are negatively related to academic standing.
“Students in good academic standing reported having higher self-efficacy and adopted significantly more mastery goals toward learning than students on academic probation. Among students who reported having high self-efficacy, those on academic probation reported adopting significantly more performance-avoidance goals than those in good academic standing” (Hsieh, Sullivan, and Guerra, 2007).
Conclusion
Because of this feedbacks, the researchers recommended that teachers must classify the students with low self-efficacy and the students with adopting performance-avoidance goals.
“Teachers and administrators may be able to guide students who have beliefs and goals that contain maladaptive patterns of learning that sabotage their ability to succeed in school” (Hsieh, Sullivan, and Guerra, 2007).