Elaine S. Elliot and Carol S. Dweck: "Goals: An Approach to Motivation and Achievement"
The Elliot and Dweck study specifically looked at how performance and learning goals helped to determine the success or failure of fifth grade students on achievement situations. The type of goals that students set for themselves from the out set of different achievement tasks is hypothesized to determine the outcome of the performed tasks. The study specifically looked at when and why students displayed a learned helpless response versus gaining a mastery-orientated characteristic in correlation with their initial goals.
There were two main parts to the study. The first involved giving the students feedback on their current skill level (high or low). Students were asked to perform a pattern recognition task to help the experimenter determine the skill level of each student. As a result of the first part of the experiment, half the students were told that they had high ability for the experimental task and the other half were told that they had low ability for the experimental task. After the abilities were identified, the second part of the experiment involved the students selecting either a learning task or a performance task. For the learning task the students were told that mistakes would be made and this task would cause confusion, but they would be able to develop a new skill that would help them learn over time. For the performance task, that students were told that they would have the opportunity to display their skill level in accordance to three different difficulty levels of tasks, however, nothing new would be learned with this task. Without knowing it, all students performed the same discrimination task. This was done to help prove the hypothesis that the prearranged goals determine whether helplessness or mastery-orientated patterns would be displayed. Verbalizations were also recorded to help understand why students were making the decisions they were as well as help the experimenters understand the type of thoughts (positive or negative), students were encountering as they struggled through the tasks.
The results of the study supported the hypothesis that "children’s achievement goals are critical determinants of either the helpless or mastery-orientated learning patterns" (p.10). "When the value of a performance goal was highlighted and children believed their current skills were high, they responded in a mastery-orientated manner. Conversely, when the value of the performance goal was highlighted and children believed they had low ability, they responded to feedback about mistakes in a learned helpless manner" (p. 10). When the learning goal was selected, "children’s beliefs about their current skills were irrelevant in determining their achievement behavior" (p. 10).
This study supports similar theories which we have discusses in class thus far, specifically Csikszentmihalyi’s Flow Theory and Hansen’s four general approaches to coping with classroom tasks. These particular research theories and studies point to the fact that the student’s perception of their ability does lend itself to different outcomes when that ability is being tested. Elliot and Dweck’s research shows that the type of goal selected also develops very different cognitive, affective and behavioral outcomes. Therefore, the type of goal chosen by our students can lend itself to either potentially harmful or helpful outcomes. Perhaps knowing in advance the types of goals and motivations that our students possess could help in preventing harmful consequences from occurring, as well as direct performance based students towards a better balance between learning and performance based goals. It would also be helpful to understand the thought process of students so we can see what causes them to choose either performance or learning based goals. Knowing how students select their goals could help the teacher define or redefine the learning strategies used with the students.
My one concern with this study, which was addressed in the experiment, was the potential for future implications of the students who were told they had low ability for the experimental task. When experiments are run outside of the classroom setting, students are placed in fairly equal groups to have statistically sound experiments run. It may be more applicable to run these types of studies in the classroom setting without manipulating the student’s ability level.
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