Achievement Goals in Context: Exploring Goal Orientation in a Cross-Cultural Sample of Gifted Adolescents

This study examined four types of achievement goals (mastery goals, performance approach normative goals, performance approach appearance goals, and performance avoidance goals) in academically talented adolescents from the US (n = 526), China and Taiwan (n = 33), Singapore (n = 20), and South Korea (n = 23). Over the past 30 years, researchers in the US have moved toward increasingly nuanced understandings of achievement goals; however, achievement goals have not been measured with the same precision in cross-cultural and gifted populations. Furthermore, overrepresentation of Asian American students in U.S. gifted programs raises questions about the role of culture within the US and cross-culturally. After a detailed overview of historical and conceptual changes to the achievement goal construct, this exploratory study used existing data to determine whether there are differences in the prevalence of these goals across samples.Using two forced-choice measures of achievement goals (Task-choice Goal Measure and Questionnaire Goal Choice), mastery goals were most prevalent in all national samples and all U.S. ethnic groups. Performance avoidance goals were reported most by students in the US and least by students in China and Taiwan, although East Asian American students in the US reported performance avoidance goals at an even higher rate than did the U.S. sample overall. Performance approach appearance goals were largely absent in the samples from South Korea and Singapore. Among ethnic groups in the US, performance avoidance goals were most common among students who belonged to groups typically overrepresented in gifted populations and least common among underrepresented groups. Differences by sample and by achievement goal choice were examined in five theorized correlates of achievement goals: perceived challenge, self-reported learning, course enjoyment, perceived competence in the summer class, and perceived competence at their home schools. Course enjoyment was highest among students with mastery goals. Implications for measurement of achievement goals, future cross-cultural research in on motivational constructs, and differences in the cultural context of learning among U.S. ethnic groups are discussed