Quality of Student Effort: Improving Through Achievement Mastery and Psychological Needs

Instructors shaping the classroom experience with a variety of innovative teaching methods may improve the quality of student effort. This study facilitates effective innovation by developing and testing a model that shows how the quality of student effort is influenced by an achievement mastery goal orientation in tandem with the student’s fulfillment of three psychological needs. Findings reveal the influence of these factors, thus highlighting their importance and suggesting that instructors give attention to each one of them when deciding to take steps to increase student effort. Achievement Goal Theory and Self-Determination Theory are drawn upon to advance hypotheses that are tested as a structural equation model using data collected from students taking marketing courses. Recommendations for future research are provided