The purpose of the study by Elaine Elliot and Carol Dweck was to test the hypothesis that different goals set up performance- and mastery-oriented patterns.
Participants: 101 fifth grade students (57 girls and 44 boys) in a semi-rural school.
Method:
Although they were given the same discrimination task to be able to make comparisons on their abilities of problem solving strategies, they were given options to choose a task. Each task represented either a learning goal or a performance goal.
Tasks: They were offered two boxes, one with performance tasks and one with learning tasks. They were introduced to the students as they would not learn new things if they chose the performance box and they would learn a lot of new things if they chose the learning box.
Results:
Elliot and Dweck (1988) state "Our research suggests that each of the achievement goals runs off a different "program" with different commands, decision rules, and inference rules, and hence, with different cognitive, affective, and behavioral consequences. Each goal, in a sense, creates and organizes its own world—each evoking different thoughts and emotions and calling forth different behaviors" (p. 11).
This study reveals the importance of feedback that emphasizes the learning and effort. Focus on ability, intelligence, and grades promotes performance orientation rather than learning orientation.
For further reading: Elliot, E. S., Dweck, C. S. (1988). Goals: An Approach to Motivation and Achievement. Journal of Personality and Social Psychology, 54 (1), 5-12.
Click here to continue with Study #2.
Participants: 101 fifth grade students (57 girls and 44 boys) in a semi-rural school.
Method:
- Regardless of students' skill level on an experimental task, they were given task instructions that highlighted the importance of either performance or learning goal and all students were told that their capacity was high enough to acquire the new knowledge or skills from the task.
- Their beliefs about their skills were influenced by feedback that half of the students were told the task revealed that they had a high ability whereas the rest were told they had low ability for the task.
Although they were given the same discrimination task to be able to make comparisons on their abilities of problem solving strategies, they were given options to choose a task. Each task represented either a learning goal or a performance goal.
Tasks: They were offered two boxes, one with performance tasks and one with learning tasks. They were introduced to the students as they would not learn new things if they chose the performance box and they would learn a lot of new things if they chose the learning box.
Results:
- Choice of Tasks: When the importance of knowledge was highlighted, students chose the learning box. They chose the performance box when the importance of evaluation was highlighted.
- No differences appeared between the high ability and low ability groups under the learning condition. However, students made attributions for failure when given low ability feedback under the performance condition.
Elliot and Dweck (1988) state "Our research suggests that each of the achievement goals runs off a different "program" with different commands, decision rules, and inference rules, and hence, with different cognitive, affective, and behavioral consequences. Each goal, in a sense, creates and organizes its own world—each evoking different thoughts and emotions and calling forth different behaviors" (p. 11).
This study reveals the importance of feedback that emphasizes the learning and effort. Focus on ability, intelligence, and grades promotes performance orientation rather than learning orientation.
For further reading: Elliot, E. S., Dweck, C. S. (1988). Goals: An Approach to Motivation and Achievement. Journal of Personality and Social Psychology, 54 (1), 5-12.
Click here to continue with Study #2.
