Abstract
The present study examined the achievement orientation and motivational behaviour of Chinese high school students in Hong Kong. Specifically, Grade 7 (N=187) and 9 (N=192) students responded to questionnaires adapted from Western studies, which measured their incremental theory of intelligence, goal orientations (learning, performance and work avoidance goals), and motivational behaviour (monitoring strategy, superficial cognitive engagement, boredom, and choice of easy task). contradictory to previous belief, it was found in this study that students who believed intelligence as malleable placed greater emphasis on both learning and performance goals. In congruence with other studies, students who emphasized learning goals used more monitoring strategy, felt less boring in class, and had higher tendency to choose challenging task. Whereas, students who adopted the work avoidance goal reported more superficial cognitive engagement, felt more boring in class, and had higher tendency to choose easy task. The above pattern of relations among the various constructs was cross-validated using, another independent sample of students.
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