Students’ Achievement Goals and Identity Exploration in the Classroom Context

• In Event: Achievement Goals and Beliefs

Abstract

This study used survey data from 523 7th-9th grade students to investigate the relations of achievement goals and identity exploration in classes students identified as meaningful. Mastery-approach goals were related to high class-related identity exploration in humanities classes regardless of levels of other achievement goals. However, in math-and-science classes, whereas some students who reported high mastery-approach goals also reported relatively high class-related identity exploration, others who reported high mastery-approach goals reported very low identity exploration. It seems that focusing on meaningful learning of content in the humanities is likely to involve exploration of self-aspects, but that such a focus in math-and-science may hold different meanings to students: for some it would be related to identity exploration and for others not.

Authors

• Mirit Sinai, Ben-Gurion University of the Negev

• Avi Kaplan, Temple University

• Hanoch Flum, Ben-Gurion University of the Negev