“Goal Theorists Should Move on From Performance Goals” by Jere Brophy

Jere Brophy’s article focuses on the point that performance goals are not desired goals for students to have and performance goals should be characterized as outcome goals, or use other terms that focus on the importance of achievement in the classroom rather than competition.

Performance goals focus on the importance of seeming competent and skilled in comparison to others while mastery goals focus on the development of mastering skills. Some theorists support a multiple goals perspective that means students are pursuing multiple goals simultaneously that are both mastery and performance goals. Brophy says that while this theory is good in theory, it is much harder in practice.

Brophy discusses experiments and studies done in the past regarding performance goals and mastery goals. Midgley and Co.’s experiments incorporated peer comparisons more explicitly than other studies have. Their experiments used the PALS (patterns of adaptive learning) which asks 6 performance approach item questions and then place them on a scale depending on their answers. In Elliot and Harackiewicz’s (1996) study, they emphasized trying to do well and competition was mentioned secondary. The instructions in their experiments made little distinction between the different kinds of goals which meant the tests were taken as amusement rather than learning. Brophy also brings up that investigators who asked students questions without any specification on goals found little evidence and were given answers such as “it’s just our work” or “we learn to read” when first graders are asked about their literary assignments.

Brophy shows that when students are asked about their goals in school, they rarely mention being compared to other peers or doing better than their fellow peers, and performance goals are seldom mentioned of their own accord. Brophy concludes that the term performance goals should be phased out completely. Instead, the term outcome goals can be used which will focus on meeting assessment criteria without the emphasis that the assessment is an opportunity to display or receive validation.