Showing papers on "Goal orientation published in 1991"

A Theory of Goal Setting and Task Performance

Abstract: The article reviews the book “A Theory of Goal Setting and Task Performance,” by Edwin A. Locke and Gary P. Latham.

The relationship of task and ego orientation to sportsmanship attitudes and the perceived legitimacy of injurious acts

Abstract: Nicholls's theory of achievement motivation (1989) assumes one's goal orientation in an achievement activity is consistent with one's views concerning what is acceptable behavior in that setting. The purpose of this study was to determine the relationship of a task and ego goal orientation (i.e., the tendency to focus on personal mastery or beating others, respectively) to sportsmanship attitudes and perceptions of the legitimacy of aggressive acts by testing this assumption in the context of interscholastic sport. Fifty-six male and 67 female high school basketball players completed a three-part questionnaire assessing (a) individual differences in goal orientation, (b) approval of “unsportsmanlike play/cheating,” “strategic play,” and “sportsmanship behaviors,” and (c) subjective ratings of the legitimacy of intentionally injurious behaviors. All measures were basketball-specific. Results indicated a low task orientation and high ego orientation corresponded to an endorsement of unsportsmanlike...

Budget use, task uncertainty, system goal orientation and subunit performance: A test of the ‘fit’ hypothesis in not-for-profit hospitals

Abstract: Researchers have used contingency theory to argue that organizations perform more effectively if structures and control systems are designed to match contextual variables. The ‘fit’ hypotheses developed in the organization and management control literatures to test this theory have generally assumed the existence of a unifying set of organization goals and that individual behaviour can be directed towards the achievement of these goals. Management control systems, such as budgeting, have been similarly conceptualized. This paper argues that the extent to which individuals will behave in an ‘administratively’ rational manner and wittingly or unwittingly match the use of control strategies to organizational contextual variables will depend on whether they identify with the organization as a system. The paper tests the three-way interaction between task uncertainty, budget use and system goal orientation. The empirical analysis based on a sample of 192 subunit managers in four large Australian not-for-profit hospitals provides results to support the hypothesis developed.

Success for All.

Abstract: 1. The descriptive information for this program was obtained from the publicly available program web site (www.successforall.net, downloaded February 2007). The WWC requests developers to review the program description sections for accuracy from their perspective. Further verification of the accuracy of the descriptive information for this program is beyond the scope of this review. 2. The evidence presented in this report is based on available research. Findings and conclusions may change as new research becomes available. Success for All (SFA)® is a comprehensive school reform model that includes a reading, writing, and oral language development program for students in pre-kindergarten through grade eight. Its underlying premise is that all children can and should be reading at grade level by the end of third grade and then remain at grade level thereafter. Classroom reading instruction is delivered in daily 90-minute blocks to students grouped by reading ability. Immediate intervention with tutors who are certified teachers is given each day to those students who are having difficulty reading at the same level as their classmates. A full-time SFA® facilitator employed by the school supports classroom instruction by training teachers, overseeing student assessments, and assisting with decisions about group placement and tutoring. Family Support Teams work on parent involvement, absenteeism, and student behavior. This intervention report focuses on the reading instructional component of SFA®, which is often implemented in the context of the highly structured SFA® whole school reform program. Although the whole school reform program has key components that are implemented in each school, school sites may vary considerably in the number of personnel used to implement SFA®, particularly tutors and family support staff. The reading curricula are essentially the same at all schools, with each school receiving the same training, coaching support, and materials. Ratings presented in this report are not disaggregated by the variations in implementation of whole school reforms. Reading outcomes from all studies included in this report are examined together and formed the basis for a single effectiveness rating for each outcome domain.

A Test of Dweck’s Model of Achievement Goals as Related to Perceptions of Ability

Abstract: This study tested Dweck’s model of achievement goals as related to perceptions of ability. The relationships between individual differences in achievement goal tendencies and perceived causality were examined. First, it was found that American university students can be described as having three kinds of achievement goal tendencies: one learning goal and two performance goals (one to gain approval and the other to advance in school). Second, it was revealed that although the perceived stability of low ability was negatively related to the learning goal tendency, as Dweck stated, the directions of relationships between the perceived stability and controllability of low ability and the performance goal tendencies were opposite to that expected by Dweck. Furthermore, our results indicated that other causal perceptions (effort and task difficulty) also are predictors of achievement goals.

Post-High School Plans and Aspirations of Black and White High School Seniors: 1976-86

Abstract: The chances of college entry declined among Black Americans from 1977 through the mid-1980s, absolutely and relative to those of Whites. During the decline, the post-high school plans of Black and White seniors followed similar trends. Annual measurements from the Monitoring the Future surveys show no trends among Blacks' or Whites' plans to attend technical or vocational school or plans or aspirations to complete a two-year college program. Plans and aspirations to enter the armed forces increased among Blacks and Whites, and the increase in plans was larger among Blacks than among Whites. Plans and aspirations to complete a four-year college program grew among Blacks and Whites, and the increase in plans was smaller among Blacks than among Whites. The upward trends among Blacks, but not among Whites, were driven by favorable changes in social background. Changes in aspirations among Black high school seniors cannot account for the decline in their chances of entering college.

Three Levels of Goal Orientation in Learning

Abstract: Sixteen adult volunteers provided thinking-aloud protocols while undergoing a 10-hr individually administered course in BASIC (beginner's all-purpose symbolic instruction code) programming. Three levels of goals were identified as operative in the learning situation: task-completion goals, instructional goals, and personal knowledge-building goals. Although protocol statements indicating knowledge-building goals were infrequent, students exhibiting a relatively high proportion of them were distinctive in several ways. They did significantly better on a posttest. Their performance in goal cue selections differed from that of other participants in ways consistent with their orientation: They responded more often to learning goal cues than to task goal cues. They actively related new learning to prior knowledge and they posed and tried to solve problems and questions. Students oriented toward instructional goals tended to focus on what was explicitly taught. Students oriented toward task-completion goals ten...

A Caveat: Curriculum Integration Isn't Always a Good Idea.

Abstract: Curriculum integration is some times necessary to teach about topics that cut across or tran scend school subjects. Even when inte gration is not necessary, it is often desirable, as when content drawn from one subject is used to enrich the teach ing of another (period artwork used in history) or when skills learned in one subject are used to process or apply information learned in another (debates or report writing in social studies). However, curriculum integration is not an end in itself but a means for accom plishing basic educational goals. Fur thermore, recommended activities may not help achieve those goals, nor are they always implemented effectively. We offer this caveat because, in the course of examining recent elementary social studies series, we saw many sug gestions made in the name of integra tion that we consider counterproductive. Too often, activities described as ways to integrate social studies with other subjects either tack educational value in any subject or promote progress toward significant goals in another subject but not in social studies. Many of these activities are pointless busywork (alphabetizing the state capitals). Others may have value as lan guage arts activities but don't belong in social studies curriculum (exercises that use social studies content but focus on pluralizing nouns). Moreover, many suggested activities require time-consuming artistic or construction work. Some of these develop—or at least allow for—oppor tunities to use social studies knowledge (constructing maps of the school), but others simply lack educational value (carving pumpkins to look like U.S. presidents). The same is true of various role-play, simulation, collage, and scrapbook activities. So-called integration activities some times even distort social studies content. For example, a unit on pioneer life includes a sequencing-skills exercise built around five steps in building log cabins. Three of these five steps are arbitrarily imposed rather than logically necessary. The authors apparently included this exercise not because it developed key knowledge about pioneer life, but because they wanted to put an exercise in sequential ordering some where in the curriculum. Ill-conceived integration ideas also sometimes require students to do things that are strange, difficult, or even impossible. One activity calls for stu dents to use pantomime to communicate one of the six reasons for the Constitu tion as stated in its preamble. We do not think that social studies time should be spent practicing pantomime skills, but even if we did, we would select a more appropriate subject for pantomime than reasons for the Constitution. Finally, suggested activities some times call for students to do things they are not prepared to do, either because the task is ambiguous (drawing a hun gry face) or because it requires them to use knowledge that has not been taught in the curriculum and is not likely to have been acquired elsewhere (having 1 st graders role-play scenes from Mexico when all they have learned about Mexico is its location on a map). In view of these problems, educators should consider integration a potential tool that is feasible and desirable in some situations but not in all. An activ ity is appropriate because it promotes progress toward significant educational goals, not merely because it cuts across subject-matter lines. Furthermore, in assessing the time spent in integrated activities versus subject-area ones, educators should weigh the costeffectiveness of the activities in accom plishing each subject's major goals. Before we have students engage in activities designed to promote curricu lum integration, let's apply criteria: 1. Activities should be educationally significant, ones desirable even if they did not include the integration feature. 2. Activities should foster, rather than disrupt or nullify, accomplishment of major goals in each subject area. LJ

An empirical analysis of a goal setting questionnaire

Abstract: This research presents an analysis of a goal setting questionnaire developed by Locke and Latham (1984). The Locke and Latham measure attempts to assess the core goal attributes of ‘specificity’ and ‘difficulty’, as well as other attributes of the goal setting process (such as perceptions about ‘performance feedback’, ‘supervisor support’, ‘conflict’ and ‘stress’). The psychometric properties of the measure were examined using respondents from employees of a large, west-coast electronics organization. A principal components analysis extracted 10 meaningful factors and identified a need for additional items. Results generally supported the meaningfulness of the goal setting factors and provide important directions for future research.

Practical proposals for motivating students

Abstract: Three prescriptions offered by theories of motivation—reshape students' overall achievement orientation, create an expectation for success, and increase the specificity and value of academic outcomes—offer practical suggestions for enhancing learning.

Effects of self‐esteem and gender on goal choice

Abstract: Summary The relationship between enduring or personality characteristics and goal choice has been of considerable theoretical, but little empirical interest in recent years. From an expectancy value perspective, we addressed the impact of self-esteem and gender on choice of goal difficulty level. As predicted, esteem and gender made significant contributions to the prediction of goal choice. The implications of these findings for future research in organizational settings, goal setting theory, and the relationship between goals and tasks are discussed.

Educational trajectory and “action orientation”: Grade and track differences

Abstract: A life-span developmental perspective suggests that variations in social context will lead to differences among individuals in their “action orientations” An action orientation is defined by an individual's values, control beliefs, goal orientation, and decision-making perspective To investigate differences in the action orientations of adolescents embedded in different contexts, 83 sophomore and senior high school students on either a vocational training or college-preparatory trajectory participated in the study A discriminant function analysis of action orientations showed that the action orientations of vocational training and college-preparatory students differed: College-preparatory students had a “career preparation” action orientation and vocational students had an “adult preparation” action orientation; also, sophomores may have had a “socializing” orientation The findings are discussed in terms of the developmental tasks facing students in different grades and on different life-course trajectories

The Effects of Autonomy on Motivation, Use of Learning Strategies, and Performance in the College Classroom.

Abstract: This paper presents results of a study that examined the effect of different levels of autonomy upon intrinsic goal orientation, task value, self-efficacy, test anxiety, use of metacognitive strategies, and performanc2 in the college classroom. Study participants were 365 college students from 4 institutions in 10 classrooms: 3 biology (n=162); 3 English (n=79); and 4 social science classes (n=124). Study findings revealed clear differences between the three types of classrooms on end-of-term mean levels of intrinsic goal orientation, task value, and self-efficacy, with autonomy showing a facilitative effect on these constructs. Metacognition was only slightly, but positively related to autonomy. Neither test anxiety nor performance seemed to be related to classroom experiences of autonomy. Both intrinsic goal orientation and autonomy were significant main effects on end-of-term task value; and intrinsic goal orientation and autonomy seemed to have an additive relationship with regard to task value. Intrinsic goal orientation, but not autonomy, was related to differences in end-of-term levels of metacognition and self-efficacy. ',he results indicate that the effects of autonomy are more closely related to motivation than to act Al performance. Contains 17 references. (Author/GLR) ********************************4-************************************** Reproductions supplied by EARS are the best that can be made from the original document. *********************************************************************** The effects of autonomy on motivation, use of learning strategies, and performance in the college classroom

Effects of Goal Choice, Strategy Choice, and Feedback Source on Goal Acceptance, Performance and Subsequent Goals1

Abstract: This study examined the effects of goal choice, strategy choice, and feedback source on goal acceptance, performance, and future self-set goals. The results were partially consistent with earlier work by Earley and Kanfer (1985) in that goal and strategy choice interacted to affect initial performance and goal acceptance. However, the nature of the performance interaction was not as expected. Results pertaining to future goals and subsequent performance suggested that goal choice was an important determinant of future goals and that feedback, goal choice, and strategy choice interacted to influence subsequent performance. Contrary to expectations, feedback source did not exert a main effect on subsequent performance, goal setting, or perceptions of feedback acceptance and usefulness. Discussion centered on the differential impact of choice on perceptual and behavioral variables and the failure of self-feedback to significantly affect subsequent goals and performance.