Specifying causal relations between students' goals and academic self-concept: an integrated structural model of student motivation

The central aim of this thesis was to investigate relationships between students’ goals and self-concepts and to demonstrate how these two sets of motivational variables interact to influence academic achievement. Answers were, thus, sought for vexed questions concerning the causal ordering of students’ goal orientations, academic self-concepts and academic achievement by hypothesising three competing models of causality: a/ goal orientations affect academic self-concepts, which in turn affect subsequent academic achievement, b/ academic self-concept affect goal orientations, which in turn affect subsequent academic achievement, and c/ goal orientations, academic self-concepts, and academic achievement affect each other such as they are reciprocally related over time. Findings from this research hold important implications for our theoretical understanding of factors affecting student motivation, and also for educational practice and research relating to students’ goals and academic self-concepts. These implications, in turn, provide new perspectives for promoting optimal motivation and academic achievement amongst secondary school students