Achievement Goal

The main goal of this paper is to identify the relationship between achievement goals and academic self-efficacy with academic success. It was attempted to investigate the mediating role of academic self-efficacy in the relationship between achievement goals with academic success. The sample of this study comprised 220 subjects, in different ages including both women and men. The instruments used are the achievement goals orientations contained 14 items (Midgley et al., 2000), the 8-item academic self-efficacy for Learning and Performance for College students (Pintrich et al, 1991) and college GPA. The results indicated that mastery goals, performance-approach goals and self-efficacy had a significant relationship with academic success. The results showed that self-efficacy has the facilitative role on the relationship between mastery goals and performance-approach goals for academic success and mastery goals and self-efficacy could be strongly useful in the motivating strategies for enhancing learning.

This study aimed at examining the effects of the feedback types designed based on the regulatory focus theory (i.e., prevention vs. promotion) and reference of comparison (i.e., normative vs. self-referential) on achievement emotions and achievement goals. One hundred intermediate English language learners were assigned to four experimental groups, promotion, prevention, self-referential, normative, and one control group (N= 20 for each). The participants in the experimental groups received feedback based on their assignment for 16 sessions, and their achievement emotions and achievement goals were assessed before and after the intervention. ANCOVA analyses revealed that significant differences existed between the four experimental groups and the control group regarding achievement emotions and achievement goals. Self-referential feedback and promotion feedback increased positive emotions and led students to mastery-approach and mastery-avoidance goal adoption, while normative feedback and prevention feedback increased negative emotions. Furthermore, normative feedback positively affected performance-approach and performance-avoidance goals. Prevention-focused feedback had a positive effect on mastery-avoidance goals. The researchers recommended that teachers use feedback emphasizing learners’ growth and improvement as a means for progress check.