Students' and teachers' goals in the classroom

Abstract

The study presented in this article is aimed at understanding students' goal orientation in a classroom context. The methodology developed for this purpose has two main distinctive features: (a) the definition of two levels of approach to the real classroom context; (b) the development of interviews to elicit students' goals in the classroom. On the basis of these procedures, students' general and specific goals in the classroom are identified and characterized. Results are discussed in terms of the patterns of students' goals in the classroom, the consistencies and changes in students' goals in different situations, and the match or mismatch between students' and teachers' goals. Copyright (c) 1996 Elsevier Science Ltd.