Chapter 7: Is Mastery Orientation always Beneficial for Learning?

When goal orientations theories were first developed, the distinction between mastery (or task or learning) goals and performance (or ego) goals implied that the former contrary to the latter were beneficial for learning in terms of achievement and positive affect, such as interest and liking. However, gradually it became clear that performance-approach goals might coexist with mastery goals and lead to better achievement than mastery goals do by themselves. On the contrary, performance-avoidance goals are not conducive to learning and achievement. Despite these findings, it is not still clear how students’ goal orientations interact with teaching practices, such as the kind of goals teachers emphasize and the feedback they provide to students. In our study we measured 7th and 9th graders’ (N = 870) math ability and goal orientations. We also gave them three mathematical problems, differing in difficulty, to solve. The instructions emphasized either mastery or performance goals, whereas the control group received no goal instructions. After solving each problem students were given extrinsic feedback, which was either positive or negative. We also measured students’ positive affect and metacognitive experiences before and after they solved each problem. We found that performance instructions enhanced task performance more than mastery instructions did, and fostered students’ mastery and performanceapproach goal orientations. Mastery instructions fostered mastery and performance-avoidance goal orientations. Performance and mastery instructions also supported students’ positive affect, except when associated with negative extrinsic feedback. Finally, both mastery and performance instructions supported the association between students’ mastery and performanceapproach goal orientations with outcome-related metacognitive experiences.