To promote active and healthy lifestyles in schoolage children, many afterschool physical activity programs offer students opportunities to participate in a variety of physical activities. The effects of such programs on students’ levels of physical activity, however, depend largely on whether the students are motivated to participate and to demonstrate high levels of engagement behaviors in the programs. Therefore, it is critical for researchers and teachers to gain an understanding in this area. This study utilized a trichotomous achievement goal model to explore and describe what actually happened in terms of students’ achievement goals, attitudes, and disruptive behaviors in an afterschool physical activity program. More specifically, the purposes of the study were fivefold: (1) to examine the reliability and validity of the scores generated by the trichotomous model, (2) to identify achievement goals endorsed by students, (3) to determine students’ attitudes toward the program, (4) to identify students’ disruptive behaviors, and (5) to investigate the relationships among students’ achievement goals, attitudes, attendance, and disruptive behaviors. Results of this study indicate the trichotomous model observed in academic settings also existed among atrisk elementary school students in an afterschool physical activity program and the scores generated by this model were valid and reliable. Furthermore, students were found to score significantly higher on the mastery goal than they did on the performanceapproach and performanceavoidance goals, demonstrate positive attitudes, and display disruptive behaviors identified with the literature. Finally, the mastery goal was found to be positively related to students’ positive attitudes and negatively related to students’ selfreported low engagement, whereas the performanceapproach and performanceavoidance goals were found to be positively related to students’ selfreported disruptive behaviors. Overall, the findings of the present study provide empirical support for the utilization of the trichotomous model in the context of afterschool physical activity programs. They also suggest the positive motivational effects of mastery goals observed in the classroom and physical education can be translated in the context of an afterschool physical activity program with atrisk elementary school students. Therefore, promoting mastery goals among students should become a high priority in afterschool physical activity programs.

This proposed study examines whether different levels of informative feedback can change students’ achievement goal orientation. A factorial repeated-measures MANOVA will be conducted to investigate changes in levels of trichotomous goals and reading comprehension scores of community college students over one academic semester. I hypothesize that both scores will be responsive to the level of informative performance feedback. Participants who get more information about their performance and a strategy to solve similar tasks will show significantly greater increases in mastery and performance-approach goals and decreases in performance-avoidance goals. In addition, effects of demographic variables on the goal-regulation outcomes (e.g., sex and ethnicity) will be examined. Implications for future research and educational applications are presented. This report also includes an evaluation plan which details the components of the trust building program, a model for the program, and the proposed method to measure the reported outcomes. / text

Perceived control (Rothbaum, Weisz, & Snyder, 1982) and achievement goals (Dweck & Leggett, 1988) are two widely studied motivational constructs that influence students’ emotions and achievement. The central focus of this dissertation was to explore the associations between achievement goals and perceived control in three studies. Each study used a separate cohort of first-year college students taken from the Motivation and Academic Achievement (MAACH) Project (1992-2005, N = 10,053). Study 1 (n = 752) was descriptive and tested the associations between goals, control, and attributions. The results demonstrated that primary control was very clearly defined by the controllability dimension of attributions; however, the other variables were less clear. The purpose of Study 2 (n = 360) was to test for reciprocal relationships between goals and control by using a two-wave four-variable cross-lag panel model. The best predictor of each Time 2 variable was its corresponding Time 1 counterpart. Additionally, the results showed that Time 1 mastery goals positively predicted Time 2 primary and secondary control, but no other relationships emerged. Study 3 (n = 251) extended the relationships between goals and control to predict students’ emotions and achievement. The direct and indirect effects implied by the following longitudinal model were tested: goals → control → emotions → achievement (Pekrun, 2006). Mastery goals positively predicted primary and secondary control, whereas performance goals positively predicted primary control only. Primary control was the main mediator between goals and negative emotions. Additionally, primary control had a positive direct effect on achievement, and thus mediated the effects of both mastery and performance goals on this outcome. Secondary control had a negative direct effect on achievement and consequently acted as a negative mediator between mastery goals and achievement. For mastery goals, anger, anxiety, and boredom functioned as positive mediators with achievement. These emotions also positively mediated the effects of primary control on achievement. Results of the three studies are discussed in terms of contributions to the separate literatures on achievement goals and perceived control and in terms of implications for students in new and challenging achievement settings.

Perceived control (Rothbaum, Weisz, & Snyder, 1982) and achievement goals (Dweck & Leggett, 1988) are two widely studied motivational constructs that influence students’ emotions and achievement. The central focus of this dissertation was to explore the associations between achievement goals and perceived control in three studies. Each study used a separate cohort of first-year college students taken from the Motivation and Academic Achievement (MAACH) Project (1992-2005, N = 10,053). Study 1 (n = 752) was descriptive and tested the associations between goals, control, and attributions. The results demonstrated that primary control was very clearly defined by the controllability dimension of attributions; however, the other variables were less clear. The purpose of Study 2 (n = 360) was to test for reciprocal relationships between goals and control by using a two-wave four-variable cross-lag panel model. The best predictor of each Time 2 variable was its corresponding Time 1 counterpart. Additionally, the results showed that Time 1 mastery goals positively predicted Time 2 primary and secondary control, but no other relationships emerged. Study 3 (n = 251) extended the relationships between goals and control to predict students’ emotions and achievement. The direct and indirect effects implied by the following longitudinal model were tested: goals → control → emotions → achievement (Pekrun, 2006). Mastery goals positively predicted primary and secondary control, whereas performance goals positively predicted primary control only. Primary control was the main mediator between goals and negative emotions. Additionally, primary control had a positive direct effect on achievement, and thus mediated the effects of both mastery and performance goals on this outcome. Secondary control had a negative direct effect on achievement and consequently acted as a negative mediator between mastery goals and achievement. For mastery goals, anger, anxiety, and boredom functioned as positive mediators with achievement. These emotions also positively mediated the effects of primary control on achievement. Results of the three studies are discussed in terms of contributions to the separate literatures on achievement goals and perceived control and in terms of implications for students in new and challenging achievement settings.

Denna studies syfte var att erhålla en bättre förståelse om träning av dynamiskt mindset hoselever på gymnasiet ledde till bättre problemlösningsförmåga i matematik och om elevernaanvände sig av lärandemål i större utsträckning. Följande forskningsfrågor har undersöktsempiriskt: I vilken grad förstärks elevernas dynamiska mindset genom ett fåtal aktioner i litengrupp? Hur starkt är sambandet mellan dynamiskt mindset och matematisk problemlösningsförmåga?I vilken grad förändras elevernas lärandemål av träning av dynamiskt mindset? Studienbyggde på en kvantitativ interventionsmetod med en kontroll- respektive interventionsgrupp,med test av dynamiskt mindset, achievement goals och problemlösningsförmåga innan och efterintervention med gymnasieelever i en klass på ett teoretiskt program. Praktiskt genomfördes dettamed undervisning om dynamiskt mindset och genom praktiska moment där eleven fick erfara attdenne kunde förändra sin förmåga. Studiens resultat visade på att vissa aspekter av dynamisktmindset kunde förstärkas med små medel under kort tid med en liten grupp elever, men attkorrelationer kopplade till dynamiskt mindset, lärandemål och matematisk problemlösningsförmågaverkade svaga. För att mer ingående förstå konsekvenserna av dynamiskt mindsetspåverkan på lärandemål och matematisk problemlösningsförmåga krävs ytterligare studier.

Achievement goal research in physical education (PE) settings relies heavily on the traditional dichotomous achievement goal framework. Few studies use the trichotomous or 2*2 achievement goal model to explore and examine high school students?? achievement goals and behaviors in PE settings. Additionally, few studies to date have examined social and achievement goals simultaneously for high school students in PE settings. The purposes of this study were to: (1) examine whether the trichotomous and 2*2 achievement goal models reported in university undergraduate classrooms are appropriate in high school PE classes and (2) examine achievement goals and social goals simultaneously to see how they impact students?? persistence/effort toward physical education. The results revealed that the 2*2 model is appropriate for high school students in PE settings and provides a better fit to the data than the trichotomous model. The results also revealed that social responsibility goals represent the greatest contributor to students?? persistence/effort toward physical education. This is followed by masteryapproach goals, mastery-avoidance goals, and performance-approach goals. Performance-avoidance goals and social relationship goals did not significantly affect students?? persistence/effort toward physical education. Based on the findings, we advocate using both achievement and social goals when examining student motivation and achievement in high school physical education.

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This dissertation addressed knowledge gaps concerning “mastery-avoidance goals”—a construct within the prominent motivational perspective Achievement Goal Theory. Mastery-avoidance goals refer to students’ engagement in an achievement task with the purpose of avoiding failure to develop competence. While it was introduced to the achievement goal literature over a decade and a half ago, the construct of mastery-avoidance goals still lacks intuitive relevance, conceptual clarity, and evidence of prevalence among young students. In addition, so far, research has not established clear patterns of relations of mastery-avoidance goals with the other personal achievement goals (mastery-approach, performance-approach, and performance-avoidance), with contextual motivational emphases, or with adaptive and maladaptive educational outcomes. This dissertation aimed to contribute to knowledge in these gaps by investigating mastery-avoidance goals among middle school students in two subject domains that concern different types of competence: science and instrumental music. The dissertation describes two studies. In Study 1, I administered a self-report measure to middle school students (N=126) that included summated scales to investigate the empirical distinction between mastery-avoidance goals and other achievement goals, the components of its conceptual definition, its prevalence of adoption by young students in the two different domains, as well as its relations with contextual emphases and adaptive and maladaptive educational outcomes. Multidimensional scaling analysis indicated that while students in both science and instrumental music made a distinction between mastery and performance goals, these students did not make a complete distinction between mastery-approach and mastery-avoidance goals, at least according to the conceptual definition investigated in these studies. Regression analyses indicated that students’ perceptions of their teachers’ emphasis on mastery-approach and mastery-avoidance goals were significantly related to their reports of mastery-avoidance goals. Cluster analysis suggested a pattern of two general motivational profiles in the sample of more and less motivated students that differed on their simultaneous and respective high and low endorsements of both mastery-approach and mastery-avoidance goals, intrinsic and extrinsic motivation, sense of academic efficacy, and also academic achievement. In Study 2, I aimed to further knowledge of the meaning that students make of mastery-avoidance goals by examining students’ (N=79) qualitative responses to questions asking them to interpret items from the summated-scales self-report measure. Findings from a qualitative content analysis supported the findings from Study 1 about students’ lack of distinction between mastery-approach and mastery-avoidance goals, and indicated that students interpreted mastery-avoidance goals items in ways that were different from those intended by the researchers. These findings suggested that students form meanings of mastery-avoidance goals that are potentially different from the formal conceptual definition in the literature. The findings are interpreted as suggesting that students’ meaning-making about mastery-avoidance goals in both science and instrumental music may be contextualized by their personal characteristics (e.g., age), by characteristics of their school and classroom environments, and by situational characteristics (e.g., proximity of evaluative tasks). Further research should investigate systematically the different personal and contextual factors that may contribute to the meaning students make of mastery-avoidance goals. / Educational Psychology