Story-Based Learning: The Impact of Narrative on Learning Experiences and Outcomes

During the past two decades, self-efficacy has emerged as a highly effective predictor of students' motivation and learning. As a performance-based measure of perceived capability, self-efficacy differs conceptually and psychometrically from related motivational constructs, such as outcome expectations, self-concept, or locus of control. Researchers have succeeded in verifying its discriminant validity as well as convergent validity in predicting common motivational outcomes, such as students' activity choices, effort, persistence, and emotional reactions. Self-efficacy beliefs have been found to be sensitive to subtle changes in students' performance context, to interact with self-regulated learning processes, and to mediate students' academic achievement. Copyright 2000 Academic Press.

A 2 x 2 achievement goal framework comprising mastery-approach, mastery-avoidance, performance-approach, and performance-avoidance goals was proposed and tested in 3 studies. Factor analytic results supported the independence of the 4 achievement goal constructs. The goals were examined with respect to several important antecedents (e.g., motive dispositions, implicit theories, socialization histories) and consequences (e.g., anticipatory test anxiety, exam performance, health center visits), with particular attention allocated to the new mastery-avoidance goal construct. The results revealed distinct empirical profiles for each of the achievement goals; the pattern for mastery-avoidance goals was, as anticipated, more negative than that for mastery-approach goals and more positive than that for performance-avoidance goals. Implications of the present work for future theoretical development in the achievement goal literature are discussed.