Achievement goals have been key concepts for describing what motivates individuals in educational contexts. While achievement goals have often merely been conceptualized in terms of aspired end-states (aims of goal striving), contemporary research has proposed a more holistic perspective synthesizing these aims alongside autonomous versus…

In higher education, motivational factors are considered one of "the strongest predictors of academic performance" (Honike et al., 2020, p. 1). A meta-analysis of face-to-face (f2f) courses (Richardson et al., 2012) supports these claims, finding a strong correlation between performance self-efficacy and academic performance (r = 0.59),…

The purpose of this article was to review and synthesize the research literature on achievement goals in music contexts. It is structured in four parts: (a) adaptive dispositions and outcomes, (b) motivational climate, (c) music and other domains, and (d) implications for music education. Researchers have found that learners who endorse mastery…

Achievement goal theory originally defined performance-approach goals as striving to demonstrate competence to outsiders by outperforming peers. The research, however, has operationalized the goals inconsistently, emphasizing the competence demonstration element in some cases and the peer comparison element in others. A meta-analysis by Hulleman…

Updating and extending the work of O'Leary-Kelly, Martocchio, and Frink (1994), with this meta-analysis on goal setting and group performance we show that specific difficult goals yield considerably higher group performance compared with nonspecific goals (d = 0.80 plus or minus 0.35, k = 23 effect sizes). Moderately difficult and easy goals were…

This meta-analysis addresses whether achievement goal researchers are using different labels for the same constructs or putting the same labels on different constructs. We systematically examined whether conceptual and methodological differences in the measurement of achievement goals moderated achievement goal intercorrelations and relationships…

Self-regulation refers to the process whereby students activate and sustain cognitions, behaviors, and affects, which are systematically oriented toward attainment of goals. Effective self-regulation requires that students have goals and the motivation to attain them, and make attributions (beliefs about the causes of outcomes) that enhance…

This literature review focuses on the problem of lack of student motivation to learn. The purposes of this review are described as an exploration of factors that influence classroom motivation and suggestions of strategies for promoting students' desire to learn. Annotations are provided in these areas: student/teacher interaction and classroom…