Achievement goals among high school students in physical education

Abstract

Achievement goal research in physical education (PE) settings relies heavily on the traditional dichotomous achievement goal framework. Few studies use the trichotomous or 2*2 achievement goal model to explore and examine high school students?? achievement goals and behaviors in PE settings. Additionally, few studies to date have examined social and achievement goals simultaneously for high school students in PE settings. The purposes of this study were to: (1) examine whether the trichotomous and 2*2 achievement goal models reported in university undergraduate classrooms are appropriate in high school PE classes and (2) examine achievement goals and social goals simultaneously to see how they impact students?? persistence/effort toward physical education. The results revealed that the 2*2 model is appropriate for high school students in PE settings and provides a better fit to the data than the trichotomous model. The results also revealed that social responsibility goals represent the greatest contributor to students?? persistence/effort toward physical education. This is followed by masteryapproach goals, mastery-avoidance goals, and performance-approach goals. Performance-avoidance goals and social relationship goals did not significantly affect students?? persistence/effort toward physical education. Based on the findings, we advocate using both achievement and social goals when examining student motivation and achievement in high school physical education.