Achievement Goals, Student Engagement, and the Mediatory Role of Autonomy Support in Lecture-Based Courses

Bibliographic Data

ID22045895
AuthorsAida Montenegro (0000-0003-3667-9935, University of Bonn, corresponding author), Manuela Schmidt (0009-0000-7964-9053, University of Bonn)
Year2023
Volume13
Issue9
Pages912
Publication date2023-09-08
Peer ReviewedYes
Open AccessYes
TypeARTICLE
VenueEducation Sciences (JOURNAL)
Journal identifiersISSN: 2227-7102 • E-ISSN: 2227-7102
PublisherMDPI AG (PUBLISHER • IT)
DOI10.3390/educsci13090912
OpenAlexW4386541798
LanguageEN
Citations received2
References cited63

What makes first-semester students stay engaged in non-mandatory lecture-based courses? This study aims to answer this question by analyzing the relationship between student engagement with autonomy support and achievement goals. Data gathered through self-reports from 340 students attending four introductory lecture-based courses at four German universities were used to test the following hypotheses: (1) students who pursue goals for self-improvement display emotional, behavioral, and cognitive engagement, (2) emotional engagement is predicted by students’ perceptions of autonomy support, and (3) students who aim to outperform their peers display higher emotional engagement compared to cognitive engagement. After confirming the hypotheses with multiple regression analyses, additional results indicated a statistically significant relationship between both emotional engagement and achievement goals with autonomy. Further, results indicate a moderate positive association between emotional engagement and both behavioral and cognitive engagements. These findings confirm the presence of both mastery and performance goals in courses with a lecture-based teaching. This study highlights some limitations for statistical analyses with agentic engagement as well as the need to analyze study participants’ school culture for further research on student engagement

Academic achievement · Autonomy · Cognition · Cognitive dimensions of notations · German · Mathematics education · Perception · Student engagement · Education, Achievement, and Giftedness · Grit, Self-Efficacy, and Motivation · Motivation and Self-Concept in Sports · Psychology · Social Psychology