Achievement goals in adult learners: evidence from distance education

Remedios, R ORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0002-7717-6421 and Richardson, JTE, 2013. Achievement goals in adult learners: evidence from distance education. British Journal of Educational Psychology, 83 (4), pp. 664-685. ISSN 0007-0998

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Abstract

Background: There is evidence that learners may adopt different kinds of achievement goals: mastery approach, mastery avoidance, performance approach, and performance avoidance. In higher education, this evidence has mainly come from young people who have recently gone straight from secondary education to higher education. However, higher education is increasingly populated by older students, and it has been theorised that the relationship between goals and achievement might be very different for adult learners.

Aims: The aim of the present study was to examine whether the relationships between achievement, drop‐out rate, and goal orientation observed for non‐adult populations are mirrored in adult learners.

Method: The Achievement Goal Questionnaire (AGQ) was administered to adult learners taking courses by distance learning.

Sample: Respondents were 195 men and 586 women between the ages of 19 and 87.

Results: The results confirmed the reliability of the 2 × 2 version of the AGQ for this distinctive population. As in previous studies of younger students, mastery‐approach goals were unrelated to attainment, performance‐approach goals tended to facilitate attainment, and performance‐avoidance goals tended to impair attainment. In addition, mastery‐avoidance goals tended to impair students' attainment and also increased the likelihood that they would drop out of their course altogether.

Conclusion: The achievement‐goal framework is as appropriate for understanding influences on attainment in adult learners as it is in younger students. Adult learners may be more sensitive to the deleterious effects of adopting mastery‐avoidance achievement goals.

Item Type:	Journal article
Publication Title:	British Journal of Educational Psychology
Creators:	Remedios, R. and Richardson, J.T.E.
Publisher:	Wiley
Date:	December 2013
Volume:	83
Number:	4
ISSN:	0007-0998
Identifiers:	Number Type 10.1111/bjep.12001 DOI 1314027 Other
Divisions:	Schools > School of Social Sciences
Record created by:	Linda Sullivan
Date Added:	19 Feb 2021 12:22
Last Modified:	31 May 2021 15:06
URI:	https://irep.ntu.ac.uk/id/eprint/42333

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