Browsing by Author "Huhti, Kaisa"

Aims of the study. Achievement goal orientations refer to the individual tendencies of a student and describe how they act in learning situations. For example, the student may favor deep learning, minimal workload, or a good grade. Earlier experiences and situations, as well as assessment of one’s own abilities are guided by the individual’s goal orientation. This affects the way how the student is motivated and regulates their own actions. Learning situations are experienced through individual views and orientations. That is why the same learning situation may appear different for everyone. The aim of the study is to find out what kind of achievement goal orientations can be identified among primary school seventh graders in mathematics. Participants are divided into groups based on which achievement goal orientation they fit. Then the groups are compared with each other based on how they differ in gender, stress, interest, and math grade. Utilizing a person-oriented approach, this study examined the differences of achievement goal orientation groups in mathematics. Goal orientation theory and expectancy value theory were used as a frame of reference. Methods. The data (N = 874) was collected in autumn 2019 as a part of Growing Mind and Bridging the Gaps study. The project examined learning, motivation and well-being among children and adolescents. The participants were seventh graders from 28 different schools in Helsinki and 56.4 % of them were girls, 39.8 % were boys and 3.4 % identified as other. The study was made as a questionnaire which measured achievement goal orientations in mathematics, stress, and interest towards mathematics. The students were divided into groups based on achievement goal orientation profiles with K-Means Cluster Analysis. Gender differences were measured by cross-tabulation and Chi-square test of independence. The differences between the groups in interest in mathematics, stress and math grades were examined by using Analysis of Variance. Result and conclusions. Four achievement goal orientation groups were identified, of which 24.9 % were mastery-oriented, 29.1 % were success-oriented, 29.6 % were uncommitted and 16.4 % avoidance-oriented. The findings suggest that there was no significant difference between the groups in gender distribution. The mastery-oriented experienced the most interest and the least stress in studying math. The success-oriented were the second most interested in math and the group of uncommitted the third most interested. The avoidance-oriented were the least interested in mathematics. The uncommitted experienced the most stress, and the avoidance-oriented and success-oriented experienced the second most stress. The success-oriented had the best grades in math and the mastery-oriented had the second best grades. The avoidance-oriented and the uncommitted had slightly lower grades than the success and mastery-oriented.