Performance‐approach goals, task‐avoidant behaviour and conceptual knowledge as predictors of first graders’ school performance

Abstract

The present paper aims to examine the relationship between first grade children's performance-approach goal orientation, task-avoidant behaviours, conceptual knowledge and their achievement in maths and literacy. The sample consisted of 174 first grade children and their class teachers. Children's self reports of their performance-approach goals and avoidant behaviours as well as teacher-reports of children's avoidant behaviours were used. Our results indicate that performanceapproach goal orientation positively predicts children's self-reported taskavoidant behaviours which in turn have a negative effect on children's achievement outcomes. The negative effect of teacher-rated avoidant behaviours on children's achievement outcomes was even greater than the positive influence of children's conceptual knowledge. These results suggest that the relationships between goal-orientations, achievement behaviours and achievement outcomes start to form early in children's school career (or even before that) and that children's self-report of their achievement goals and behaviours provide a valuable knowledge already in this early age.

Perceived fear appeals and examination performance: Facilitating or debilitating outcomes?

“…The positive relations observed between mastery-approach and examination performance and the inverse relation between performance-avoidance and examination performance support predictions and are consistent with the extant literature (e.g., Elliot & Harackiewicz, 1996;Eum & Rice, 2010;Harackiewicz et al, 2002;Kaplan et al, 2002;Linnenbrink, 2004;Mägi et al, 2010). The non-significant path between performance-approach and examination performance was not entirely unexpected given the inconsistent findings reported in the literature.…”

“…As mastery-avoidance goals are usually unrelated to achievement (e.g. Elliot & McGregor, 2001) and there are equivocal findings relating a performance-approach goal with performance (Harackiewicz, Barron, Pintrich, Elliot, & Thrash, 2002;Mägi, Häidkind, & Kikas, 2010), it seems less likely that these goals would act as mediators.…”

Cross‐lagged relations between teacher and parent ratings of children's task avoidance and different literacy skills

“…A handful of studies have shown that task avoidance, defined as the lack of effort a person demonstrates when encountered with challenging tasks, is a significant predictor of literacy acquisition in different languages (e.g., Chinese: Liao, Georgiou, Zhang, & Nurmi, ; English: Stephenson, Parrila, Georgiou, & Kirby, ; Estonian: Mägi, Häidkind, & Kikas, ; Finnish: Hirvonen, Georgiou, Lerkkanen, Aunola, & Nurmi, ; Greek: Georgiou, Manolitsis, Nurmi, & Parrila, ). Its popularity has grown particularly after the findings of studies showing that it continues to predict reading/spelling after statistically controlling for the effects of key predictors of reading/spelling, such as letter knowledge (e.g., Manolitsis, Georgiou, Stephenson, & Parrila, ), phonological awareness (e.g., Stephenson et al ., ), and rapid automatized naming (e.g., Georgiou et al ., ).…”

Depression, Anxiety at School and Self-Esteem in Children with Learning Disabilities

“…Consequently, there is an increasing emphasis on the analysis of subthreshold anxiety characterized by subclinical symptoms of anxiety in children and adolescents [43,44]. Fears concerning separation anxiety decrease during first childhood whereas fears about school and school anxiety increase during medium childhood because of the central role of learning activities during school age [45,46].…”