Student Goal Orientation and Formative Assessment

One K-6 urban, Title I school, NA (city), Arizona (AZ)

Abstract:

DETAILS: Location: Arizona; Design: Independent, correlational, peer-reviewed; Sample: 239 students in grades 3-6; Measure: Patterns of Adaptive Scale (PALS); Duration: 1 school year.

RESULTS: This study examined the effect of Accelerated Reader and best classroom practices on the goal orientations of students at an urban, Title I elementary school. Thirty-six percent of the student body qualified for free or reduced-price lunch, and 24% of the students came from a minority background. Researchers used an adapted version of PALS to measure both the goal orientation of the students, as well as how the students perceived their teachers goal orientations. The results indicated that students using Accelerated Reader were less performance oriented (both performance-approach and performance-avoid) by the end of the year, while mastery goal orientation (learning for the sake of learning) remained consistently high. The researchers also found that students who perceived the goals of their teachers as being performance-approach or -avoid oriented tended to hold similar personal goals. When teachers were perceived as holding mastery-oriented goals, the students tended to be both more mastery oriented and more performance oriented, possibly due to students inability to differentiate between trying to learn and trying to get a high score in response to teacher encouragement to just try.

PLEASE NOTE: The Summary of this peer-reviewed journal article: Husman, J., Brem, S., & Duggan, M. A. (2005). Student goal orientation and formative assessment. Academic Exchange Quarterly, 9(3), 355-359. is available online.

The Full Article is also available online.

Publication Date:
09/01/2005