The present study examined the convergent validity between two frequently used achievement goal instruments: Patterns of Adaptive Learning Scales (PALS) and the Achievement Goal Questionnaire 3 x 2 (AGQ 3 x 2). Confirmatory factor analysis and structural equation models tested for relationships both within and across the scales in a sample of…

Achievement goal theory is a popular theoretical framework that has been widely used to understand the goals students hold regarding their academic work. This theoretical model has been subject to an ongoing debate regarding the number and nature of constructs it includes. Notable in such debates has been the inclusion or exclusion of…

The Academic Encouragement Scale (AES) evaluates academic encouragement received from someone whom the student respects. This study reported the psychometric properties of the AES among 1602 Chinese adolescents. The results of confirmatory factor analysis (CFA) supported a two-factor structure of the AES (i.e., challenge-focused encouragement…

The present study analyzed the factor validity of the Patterns of Adaptive Learning Scale (PALS) to assess students' perceptions of mathematics classroom goal structures. Participants were N = 7,773 Italian students aged from 11 to 15 years (M = 11.97, SD = 0.50). The confirmatory factor analysis replicated a three-factor structure (i.e., mastery,…

Research interest in achievement motivation and its correlates has grown in recent years. Though there are thousands of studies on goal orientation, the number of instruments to identify goal orientation based on four-fold model viz., performance approach goal orientation (PAP), performance avoidance goal orientation (PAV), mastery approach goal…

The purpose of this paper was to examine the relationships between pre-service teachers' conceptions of assessment and their intended approaches to classroom instruction and assessment. We operationalised approaches to instruction and assessment according to Achievement Goal Theory, postulating that pre-service teachers approach instruction and…

The current study aimed to explore the concept of transition self-efficacy, which is defined as individuals' subjective evaluation of their ability to execute the actions required for a successful transition from elementary to middle school. The study followed a sample of 128 sixth-grade students for 2 consecutive years (before and after the…

The present study was aimed at investigating the relationships between students' perceived classroom achievement goals, school engagement and substance use in terms of smoking and drinking, and at investigating gender differences regarding these issues in a sample of 1,239 Norwegian 10th grade students. A multivariate analysis showed that…

Achievement goal theory and thus, the empirical measures stemming from the research, are currently divided on two conceptual approaches, namely the reason versus aims-based models of achievement goals. The factor structure and predictive utility of goal constructs from the Patterns of Adaptive Learning Strategies (PALS) and the latest two versions…

We tested the interaction between task value and self-efficacy on defensive pessimism, academic cheating, procrastination and self-handicapping among 574 Korean 11th graders in the context of English as a foreign language. We hypothesised that perceiving high value in tasks or domains for which self-efficacy was low would pose a threat to…

On the basis of self-determination theory (Ryan & Deci, 2000), the authors examined whether 2 different types of introjected motivation--an avoidant type aimed at avoiding low self-worth and an approach type aimed at attaining high self-worth--are both associated with a less positive pattern of correlates relative to identified…