This study provides a developmental perspective on achievement goal orientations in writing using data obtained from 1266 students ranging in age from 9 to 17. The strength of task goal orientation decreased from elementary school to middle school and then increased in high school; performance-approach goals decreased from elementary school to…

The primary objective of this study was to determine the degree to which academic motivation predicted the executive help-seeking, instrumental help-seeking, perceived benefits of help-seeking, and avoidance of help-seeking of high school students enrolled in computer science (n = 314). Task goals were positively associated with instrumental…

This paper explored the contributions made by self-efficacy theory to the study of self-regulation and motivation in academic settings. Findings on the relationship between self-efficacy and academic performance are first summarized. The conceptual difference between the definition and use of perceptions of competence in social cognitive theory…

According to self-efficacy theorists, people's judgments of what they can accomplish are influential arbiters in human agency and, as such, powerful determinants of their behavior. In large part, this is because these self-efficacy beliefs are said to act as mediators between other acknowledged influences on behavior, such as skill, ability,…

An achievement goal theory framework was used to examine the relations among goals and a number of other motivational constructs in a sample of middle school students. Participants were 189 eighth graders from a public school in the south. In one session students completed the attitude measures and in another session they completed a mathematics…