Carol Midgley’s research while affiliated with University of Notre Dame and other places

This study examined the effects of change in teacher goal emphases on students' efficacy beliefs in mathematics across the transition to middle school. The sample (N = 929) included primarily White (65%) and Black (27%) students, and approximately one third received free or reduced-fee lunch. Analyses grouped children by cross-classification of teachers (N = 53 elementary and N = 34 middle school teachers). On average, students' efficacy beliefs remained stable and relatively high across the transition. Compared with their elementary school teacher, children reported declines in both perceived teacher mastery and performance goal emphases in middle school. A cross-classified hierarchical linear model was used to estimate the effects of perceived teacher and parent goal emphases during 6th and 7th grades on changes in students' efficacy beliefs. An increase in self-efficacy beliefs from elementary to middle school was predicted by an increase in group-level perceptions of teachers' mastery goal emphasis, even after controlling for parents' goal emphases. These findings underscore the important role that both teachers' and parents' goal emphases play as children develop a sense of efficacy in mathematics. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2012 APA, all rights reserved)

This study examines children’s perceptions of the achievement goals parents and teachers emphasize for them in mathematics, and the relation of these goals to children’s personal achievement goals, self-efficacy beliefs, and coping strategies. Results indicated that children’s perceptions of both parent and teacher mastery and performance goal emphases predicted children’s personal goals. Further, children’s personal goals mediated the relation between perceived parent and teacher goal emphases and children’s efficacy beliefs and coping strategies. Children’s perceptions of parent and teacher emphasis on performance goals varied slightly by gender but not ethnic background, whereas variance across groups in perceptions of mastery emphases did not reach practical significance. Relations between goal perceptions, personal goals, efficacy and coping strategies also did not vary by gender or ethnic background. Implications for future research regarding the goals children perceive to be emphasized in home and school contexts, and their importance for children’s adaptive beliefs and behaviors in mathematics, are discussed.

Changes in early adolescents' self-reported cheating behaviors in mathematics before and after the transition from middle school to high school are examined. Students were surveyed in school regarding their cheating behaviors in math, and the motivational goal structures perceived in their math classrooms. Surveys were completed twice during the eighth grade (during middle school) and once at the end of the ninth grade (at the end of the first year in high school). Results indicated that self-reported cheating did not change in the year prior to the high school transition, but that reported cheating increased after the transition. Additional analyses indicated that across the high school transition, self-reported cheating in math increased for students who moved from high mastery to low mastery-oriented classes after the transition, and for students who moved from low performance to high performance-oriented classes; in contrast, self-reported cheating decreased for students who moved from low to high mastery-oriented math classrooms.

Through the use of longitudinal survey data the change of achievement goal orientations was tested in a sample of middle school students in mathematics as they moved from sixth to seventh grade. Achievement goals include task goals and performance goals, with the partitioning of performance goals into approach and avoidance components. Results indicate that all goal orientations were moderately stable over time. Task goals in sixth grade positively predicted academic efficacy in seventh grade. Performance-approach goals in sixth grade positively predicted performance-avoid goals in seventh grade. Multiple regression and multi-sample analyses revealed that the path from performance-approach goals to performance-avoid goals was significant only among students reporting high academic efficacy before the transition. The results suggest that individuals who feel efficacious in math while endorsing a performance-approach goal orientation may be particularly vulnerable to adopting maladaptive performance-avoid goals over time and with change in circumstances. Peer Reviewed http://deepblue.lib.umich.edu/bitstream/2027.42/43811/1/11218_2004_Article_5252317.pdf

Observations of the first days of school in eight sixth-grade classrooms identified three different classroom environments. In supportive environments teachers expressed enthusiasm for learning, were respectful, used humor, and voiced expectations that all students would learn. In ambiguous environments teachers were inconsistent in their support and focus on learning and exercised contradictory forms of management. In nonsupportive environments teachers emphasized extrinsic reasons for learning, forewarned that learning would be difficult and that students might cheat or misbehave, and exercised authoritarian control. Teachers' patterns of motivational and organizational discourse during math classes near the end of the year were consistent with the messages they expressed at the beginning of the year. When student reports of avoidance behaviors in math from fall and spring were compared with the qualitative analyses of these environments, students in supportive classrooms reported engaging in significantly less avoidance behavior than students in ambiguous or nonsupportive environments.

Despite a recent increase in research on the associations between classroom goal structures, motivation, affect, and achievement, little is known about the effects of changes in the perceived classroom goal structure as students move from one grade level to another. Comparisons of students who perceived an increase, decrease, or no change in the mastery and performance goal structures of their classrooms during the transition to middle school and across two grades within middle school revealed that changes in the mastery goal structure were more strongly related to changes in cognition, affect, and performance than were changes in the performance goal structure. The most negative pattern of change was associated with a perceived decrease in the mastery goal structure.

Observations of the first days of school in eight sixth-grade classrooms identified three different classroom environments. In supportive environments teachers expressed enthusiasm for learning, were respectful, used humor, and voiced expectations that all students would learn. In ambiguous environments teachers were inconsistent in their support and focus on learning and exercised contradictory forms of management. In nonsupportive environments teachers emphasized extrinsic reasons for learning, forewarned that learning would be difficult and that students might cheat or misbehave, and exercised authoritarian control. Teachers’ patterns of motivational and organizational discourse during math classes near the end of the year were consistent with the messages they expressed at the beginning of the year. When student reports of avoidance behaviors in math from fall and spring were compared with the qualitative analyses of these environments, students in supportive classrooms reported engaging in significantly less avoidance behavior than students in ambiguous or nonsupportive environments.

This study examined the relation between the nature of teacher discourse and 34 sixth-grade students' reports of affect and behavior in 2 mathematics classrooms students perceived as emphasizing both mastery and performance goals. Classrooms were observed and teacher discourse was audiorecorded and transcribed for the first 2 days of the school year to assess classroom motivational context. Later, in the fall and in the spring, each classroom was observed and discourse transcribed for 5 days during a unit on factoring and for 5 days during a unit on geometry. Students filled out surveys. Findings suggested that supportive instructional discourse that focused on student understanding characterized both classrooms and was associated with student reports of self-regulation and positive coping (approach behaviors). However, the 2 classrooms differed in teacher discourse that supported student autonomy and motivation. These differences appeared to be reflected in student reports of self-handicapping (avoidance behavior) and negative affect following failure. Students in the classroom in which there was constant and explicit support for autonomy and intrinsic motivation, positive affect, and collaboration reported less negative affect and self-handicapping. Students in the classroom in which there was less supportive motivational discourse reported more negative affect and self-handicapping. Implications include how features of the classroom context, such as the motivational support provided through instructional practices, might be related to student outcomes in highmastery/high-performance classrooms.

Research in motivation and in academic press for understanding has developed separately. This study examines the relation between press for understanding and middle school students' educational beliefs and behaviors in math after controlling for their motivational goals. A scale assessing academic press for understanding was developed and included with scales assessing task, performance-approach, and performance-avoid motivational goals in surveys given to 586 eighth-grade students. Factor analysis supported the distinction between scales assessing press and motivational goals. No differences were found in students' perception of academic press by gender, race, or prior achievement. Hierarchical regression analyses found that motivational orientations predicted student beliefs and behaviors in predictable patterns. Controlling for goal orientation, academic press for understanding positively predicted self-regulation and self-efficacy and negatively predicted avoiding help-seeking but did not predict avoiding academic risk or novelty. A significant interaction indicated that as press for understanding increased, girls' avoidance of help-seeking decreased more than did boys'. The discussion includes a consideration of the mechanisms underlying press for understanding and the implications of the findings for teachers.

Achievement goal theory suggests that the emphasis on mastery and performance goals in the classroom (the classroom goal structure) is related to students' patterns of learning and behaviour. This theory can offer a preventative holistic approach for dealing with students' disruptive behaviour. The present study investigates whether the goal structure in the classroom is related to the incidence of disruptive behaviour. Sample and Methods: A total of 388 ninth-grade students from 60 classrooms in five ethnically diverse high schools responded to surveys asking about the perceived goal structures, their personal achievement goals, and their involvement in disruptive behaviour in their maths classroom. Their maths teachers responded to surveys asking about their goal-related approaches to instruction. Using hierarchical linear modelling (HLM), at the student level, being male and having lower achievement was related to reports of disruptive behaviour. In addition, personal mastery goals were related to lower reports of disruptive behaviour and personal performance-approach and performance-avoidance goals were related to higher reports of disruptive behaviour. Disruptive behaviour also varied significantly between classrooms. Aggregated student perceptions of a mastery goal structure were related to a lower incidence, and aggregated student perceptions of a performance-approach goal structure were related to a higher incidence of disruptive behaviour. The implications of the findings to approaches for dealing with disruptive behaviour are discussed.