Christian Escribe

The influence of achievement goals and perceptions of online help on its actual use in an interactive learning environment

This study explored the influence of achievement goals and perceptions of help-seeking on a learners actual use of help in an interactive learning environment. After being shown a web site on statistics, 49 psychology students answered a questionnaire on achievement goals and their perceptions of help-seeking. They were then asked to solve statistics problems in an interactive learning environment. In this environment, they were allowed to use instrumental and executive help. The results showed that high mastery goals were related to a high perception of a threat to the learners autonomy but not to the use of help. Performance goals were positively related to a perception of threat of not being considered competent and negatively related to the use of help and especially instrumental help. The implications of these results for future research on the help-seeking process in an interactive learning environment are discussed particularly in relation to the Technology Acceptance Model of the use of help.

Knowledge accessibility, achievement goals, and memory strategy maintenance.

BACKGROUND An important aim of educational psychology is to account for the difficulties in cognitive strategy maintenance. Possible explanations may be found in developmental studies concerning the interdependence of knowledge accessibility and strategy use, and in current achievement goal models which assume that individuals with a learning goal use deeper strategies than those with a performance goal. AIMS The purpose of this study was to examine how knowledge accessibility and achievement goals separately or conjointly affect the maintenance of a categorization strategy, recall performance, and perception of the strategy (utility, difficulty, effort) in a free recall task. SAMPLE Participants were 93 first-year students from a human science university in France. METHOD In the first phase, the students were taught how to use a categorization strategy in a recall task involving highly accessible (typical) items. In a subsequent transfer task, the same students were assigned to one of four experimental conditions where they were asked to recall a typical or atypical list and where a learning or performance goal was induced. RESULTS Analysis showed that whatever the typicality of the list, a learning goal promoted maintenance of the categorization strategy, and of perception of its utility. Performance goal participants only maintained this strategy and its perceptions on typical lists, while on atypical lists they display less clustering and found the strategy less useful. CONCLUSION Results suggest that maintenance of a cognitive strategy is facilitated when there is compatibility between a performance goal and the task demands, or when the participants are learning-goal oriented.

MASTERY AND CHALLENGE SEEKING : TWO DIMENSIONS WITHIN LEARNING GOALS?

The study examined the existence of two distinct dimensions within learning goals: A mastery dimension and a challenge seeking dimension. A French version of Roedel, Schraw, and Plakes (1994) Goals Inventory was administered to 305 psychology undergraduates. Confirmatory factor analyses testing a two-factor vs. a three-factor measurement model supported the distinction between the two dimensions of learning goals. Relations between goal orientations and reported strategy use and self-regulation were analyzed. The mastery and challenge dimensions within learning goals were differentially related to performance goals and strategy use.

Achievement Goals and Engagement in Individual and Collective Learning Activities

The relationship between achievement goals and individual and collective learning activities was examined for 290 university students who completed two questionnaires. One assessed three achievement goals—a mastery goal and two performance goals, namely, approval seeking and advancing. The other questionnaire measured how actively students report engaging in individual and collective learning activities. Regression analyses showed that the adoption of mastery goals was associated with active engagement in both individual and collective learning, while adoption of a performance goal of approval seeking was associated with passive engagement in individual learning activities. These results are discussed in relation to their theoretical implications and in regard to the possible moderating effect of protecting self-worth.