Using Goal Orientation to Enhance College Retention and Graduation Rates

Abstract

In this study goal orientation theory, a model used to explore achievement motivation that is commonly covered in introductory psychology textbooks, is used to improve student success. Some variants of the theory posit that mastery goals are associated with adaptive behaviours that can lead to increased success. As a result, the authors of this study developed an intervention designed to increase the pursuit of mastery goals. In previous research, they found that the intervention was associated with altered goals and improved grades. In the current study, they examined the consequences for retention and graduation rates. During the fall 2005 semester, the intervention was extended to 221 students enrolled in introductory psychology classes. A similar set of students who did not receive the intervention served as a comparison group. Five years later, the authors examined the students' transcripts for persistence in school. Students who were at risk for failure and who completed the intervention enrolled in courses at the university at nearly twice the rate of the comparison group in each of the subsequent years, and they graduated at nearly twice the rate of the comparison group. Thus, this intervention was associated with increased retention and graduation rates.

The role of goals and alcohol behavior during the transition out of college.

“…Additionally, an intervention intended to bolster achievement-related goals in the fall of senior year may motivate students to curb their drinking in order to facilitate attainment of those goals. Indeed, research in the area of goal pursuit in college students suggests that goal-directedness can be increased with intervention, and that such increases are associated with a positive impact on developmental milestone attainment (Hoyert, O’dell, & Hendrickson, 2012). In addition to the applied implications of this work, the current study provides support for examining those who plan to enroll in graduate school or those who are graduate students directly following college graduation as a distinct group of individuals when investigating emerging adults during this transitional period in a research context.…”

Increasing Student Success through a Cocktail of Cognitive Interventions

“…For students pursuing learning goals, feedback provides information about their progress towards mastery. For students pursuing performance goals, feedback is a judgement of their competence (Elliott, A.J., 1999;Hoyert, O'Dell, & Hendrickson,, 2012). In the intervention, students learned about mastery and performance goals, considered their own goals, and wrote about models of students who pursue learning and performance goals.…”

Does It Help or Hinder? A Survival Analysis Examining Factors Impacting Freshman Timely Graduation

“…Two predominant goal orientations include mastery and performance goals. Mastery goals are obtained over time and through student effort, while performance goals are met by affirmations of their competence (Hoyert, O'Dell, & Hendrickson, 2012). Students' whose goals are measured more by their effort (mastery goals) are more likely to be motivated to persist in the face of a singular academic failure, such as a failure on an examination (Hoyert et al, 2012).…”

“…Mastery goals are obtained over time and through student effort, while performance goals are met by affirmations of their competence (Hoyert, O'Dell, & Hendrickson, 2012). Students' whose goals are measured more by their effort (mastery goals) are more likely to be motivated to persist in the face of a singular academic failure, such as a failure on an examination (Hoyert et al, 2012). Understanding of goal orientation is important because it is one of the key facets to student retention (Hseih, Sullivan, & Guerra, 2007).…”