Achievement goal profiles and their associations with math achievement, self-efficacy, anxiety and instructional quality: A single and multilevel mixture study

Background

There is growing interest in studying the co-occurrence of multiple achievement goals and how different goal profiles relate to educational outcomes. Further, contextual aspects of the classroom have been known to influence the goals students pursue but existing studies remain confined within certain traditions and confounded by methods not well suited for studying classroom climate effects.

Aims

This study sought to investigate achievement goal profiles in mathematics and their associations with background covariates (i.e., gender, prior achievement) and correlates at the student-level (i.e., achievement, self-efficacy, anxiety) and class-level (instructional quality dimensions of classroom management, supportive climate, instructional clarity and cognitive activation).

Sample

Participants were 3836 Secondary-3 (Grade-9) students from 118 mathematics classes in Singapore.

Methods

Achievement goal profiles and their relationships with covariates and student-level correlates were examined with updated procedures of latent profile analysis. Subsequently, multilevel mixture analysis assessed the associations of student-level goal profiles and different class-level dimensions of instructional quality.

Results

Four profiles were identified: Average-All, Low-All, High-All and High-Approach. These profiles differed across covariates and correlates, with High-Approach students associated with positive outcomes and High-All students with math anxiety. Cognitive activation and instructional clarity predicted stronger membership in High-Approach profile than Average-All and Low-All, but not High-All.

Conclusion

Certain goal profile patterns were consistent with past studies and supported the fundamental separation of approach and avoidance goals. Less differentiating profiles were associated with undesirable educational outcomes. Instructional quality can be considered as an alternative framework for examining classroom climate effects of achievement goals.