Faculty members’ professional learning - What role do achievement goals play in the learning process?

The presented research aims to integrate research on motivation (in the form of achievement goals) into models of self-regulated learning to explain faculty members’ learning processes within the context of professional development. Models of self-regulated learning and workplace learning propose that motivation (in the pre-action phase) is a prerequisite of learning behavior (in the action phase), and thereby of learning results (in the post-action phase). Faculty members’ motivation can be described in terms of their learning goals (striving for competence expansion), performance goals (striving for competence demonstration), and work avoidance goals (striving for effort reduction), in the work domains of research and teaching. This dissertation focuses on achievement goals as antecedents of the learning process, within which personal conditions of motivation are thought to impact learning behavior, and learning behavior is proposed to mediate the relationship between motivation and learning outcomes. To this end, a model on motivated learning processes of faculty members was postulated and three studies on the hypothesized associations were conducted. Within a first longitudinal survey study, the mediating role of learning behavior (indicated by learning time) in the relationship between learning approach goals and self-reported learning results both in the teaching and the research domain was investigated (Hein, Daumiller, et al., 2019). Secondly, a micro-longitudinal survey study advanced the framework of the first study by taking learning avoidance goals into account and by looking at interactions between learning goals, general workload, and perceived autonomy within the learning process in the teaching domain (Hein, Janke, et al., 2020). Both studies partly supported learning goals as predictors of learning results, as well as the mediating role of learning time in the teaching-related learning process (Study 1: for learning approach goals, Study 2: for learning avoidance goals only). Additionally, autonomy in teaching strengthened the association between learning avoidance goals and learning time (in Study 2). Moreover, the model on motivated learning processes of faculty members was tested in a concrete informal learning situation (the usage of student evaluations of teaching), while taking objective measures for the process variable into account (Hein et al., 2021). In Study 3, the importance of learning goals was confirmed in multifactorial models, which further strengthens the assumption of motivation as a predictor within the self-regulated learning process. The model on motivated learning processes of faculty members offers a foundation for future research on faculty members’ professional learning and provides first ideas for practical implications. In accordance with the model and respective findings, faculty members might profit from striving for strong learning goals and engagement in diverse learning activities, and could be supported to reflect on the results of student evaluations of teaching in the post-action phase. The respective model can also support intervention development focused on making professional learning for this group more effective