When and Why the Role of Mastery Goal Becomes Prominent in Science Students’ Academic Achievement at Secondary School Level

Abstract

Goal orientation express the motivation behind learning engagement of the students and therefore predicts several performance indicators. Motivation is a powerful element of education as it relevant to goal orientation which influences students' to invest their time in learning process. Current study attempted to explore how different factors including gender and educational institute (public and private schools) effect goal orientation of students which in turn effect their academic achievement. For this, an adapted questionnaire containing four constructs of goal orientation including mastery, performance, performance avoidance and work avoidance was distributed among 400 science students studying at secondary school level. Data was analyzed through linear regression. The findings revealed that there is a positive association between mastery goal and academic accomplishment. However, performance avoidance and work avoidance goals were the negative predictors of academic accomplishment. Furthermore, male respondents were seen more mastery goal oriented as compared to female respondents. However, female participants had shown more value for performance goal. It was also revealed that public sector respondents were found more mastery goal oriented as compared to private sector respondents. On the basis of outcomes, few implications have been suggested, so that educators and administrators may develop professional development policies to educate students to make education meaningful and effective.