Why grades engender performance-avoidance goals: The mediating role of autonomous motivation.

Abstract

Evaluation is an inescapable feature of academic life with regular grading and performance appraisals at school and at university. Although previous research has indicated that evaluation and grading in particular are likely to have a substantial impact on motivational processes, little attention has been paid to the relationship between grading and approach versus avoidance achievement goals, 2 fundamental concerns whenever evaluation is at stake. Three experiments, carded out in professional schools, revealed that expectation of a grade for a task, compared with no grade, consistently induced greater adoption of performance-avoidance, but not performance-approach, goals. Experiments 2 and 3 revealed that expectation of a grade, compared with no grade, consistently induced greater adoption of performanceavoidance goals even when grading was accompanied by a formative comment. Furthermore, Experiment 3 showed that reduced autonomous motivation measured after having completed a task for a grade versus no grade mediated the relationship between grading and adoption of performance-avoidance goals in a subsequent task. Results are discussed in the light of achievement goal and self-determination theory.

Performance goals in conflictual social interactions: Towards the distinction between two modes of relational conflict regulation

“…Competitive contexts (e.g., ranking evaluation practice, extrinsic reward focused on results rather than effort) are known to favour the endorsement of performance goals (Meece, Anderman, & Anderman, 2006). According to their competence expectancies, high versus low, (Elliot & Church, 1997), or to the type of assessment, normative versus formative (Pulfrey, Buchs, & Butera, 2011), individuals will either pursue performance-approach goals or performanceavoidance goals. Thus, teachers, instructors, and managers, may be made more aware of the specific consequences that the goals engendered by the climates they produce have for conflicts likely to appear in working groups.…”

Teaching More by Grading Less (or Differently)

“…In these cases, the addition of written comments consistently failed to enhance student performance on follow-up tasks (Marble et al. , 1978; Butler 1988; Pulfrey et al. , 2011).…”

Assessing does not mean threatening: The purpose of assessment as a key determinant of girls' and boys' performance in a science class

“…According to Ames (1992), the assessment process is one of the most powerful factors for eliciting mastery versus performance goals (see also Brookhart, 1997;Pulfrey, Buchs, & Butera, 2011). Assessment practices that focus on normative standards increase performance goals, whereas assessment practices that emphasize the importance of progress are likely to enhance mastery goals (Butler, 2006).…”