Journal of Education and Psychology

Abstract

The instruction in learning strategies was an important issue in traditional classroom activities, but it was not enough to educate students with continuing motivation, especially when lifelong learning is be coming more important and necessary. The purpose of this study was not to focus on “how to learn?” or “what to learn?” but was concerned about the “why learn?” of students. Traditional achievement goal theory proposed that students pursuing different goal orientations demonstrated different learning behavior patterns, but many research projects with Chinese samples found that the r² of goal orientation was lower than the Western samples. It was necessary to clarify the cross-culture validity of the achievement goal theory. Using data from 682 high school students, we found that students who perceived a stronger mastery motivational climate in the classroom used more self-regular learning strategy, but it was not relevant to their math GPA; students who perceived a stronger performance motivational climate in the classroom used less self-regular learning strategies, and had lower math GPAS. We also found that correlation among the mastery, performance-approach and performance-avoidance goals were positive. These results suggest that we need more consideration when explaining the learning behavior pattern by the achievement goal theory, and the multiple-goal pattern perhaps exists in the motivational process of Taiwan students.

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