Teachers’ Perception of School Goals and Approaches to Instruction: Effects on Students’ Achievement Goals

Abstract

Secondary school is considered to be the gateway for development of other sectors of education. It provides students the opportunity for quality education and a platform from which to proceed to higher education or vocational work. It has been a challenge for secondary schools to incorporate relevant skills, knowledge, and experience in the teaching-learning process as to address students’ needs. Some students learn English better than others even if they are given the same opportunities. The present study intended to make contributions in clarifying the findings regarding effects of goal orientations on students’ academic achievement in the subject of English. This study aimed to determine the effect of teachers’ goals and approaches to instruction on student achievement goals in the subject of English at secondary level. Main objectives of the study were to Survey the teachers’ perceptions of school goal structures for students, investigate the effects of teachers’ perceptions of school goal structures and their approaches towards instruction on students’ achievement goal orientation and to determine the kind of approaches teachers had towards instruction. It is a survey research and it was conducted in conventional classrooms in government Higher Secondary schools in district Peshawar. The sample consisted of 224 male and female teachers. The Patterns for Adaptive Learning Scale (PALS) developed and revised by Midgley et al, (2000) was used for the study. Descriptive statistics and correlation analysis were applied to identify teachers’ goals and approaches to instruction and its relationship with students’ achievement goal orientation. It was concluded that teachers’ perception of school goal structure was not significantly correlated with students’ achievement goal orientation. Teachers had low mastery approaches to instruction. Gender differences were found as more female teachers had high mastery approaches to instruction than male teachers.