Epistemic beliefs and achievement goal orientations: Relations between constructs versus personal profiles. Issue 1 (2nd January 2017)

• Record Type: Journal Article
• Authors: Madjar, Nir; Weinstock, Michael; Kaplan, Avi
• Is Part Of: Journal of educational research. Volume 110:Issue 1(2017)
• Page Start: 32
• Page End: 49
• Publication Date: 2017-01-02
• Subjects: Achievement goals -- classroom goal structure -- learning strategies -- personal epistemology -- profile-centered analysis; Education -- Periodicals; 370.705
• DOI: 10.1080/00220671.2015.1034353
• Languages: English
• ISSNs: 0022-0671

Abstract

ABSTRACT: Research has found students' epistemic beliefs to predict their achievement goal orientations. Much of this research emerged from the dimensional approach of epistemic beliefs, which hypothesized a relationship between particular independent dimensions of epistemic beliefs with different achievement goals. Research in this approach has primarily applied a variable-centered approach to investigating these relations. The authors adopt an alternative conceptualization of epistemic beliefs, which considers epistemic beliefs and achievement goals as orthogonal to each other, and which favors a profile-centered approach to researching their relations. They hypothesized that while a variable-centered analysis would identify relations between epistemic beliefs and achievement goal orientations, a profile-centered analysis would demonstrate the independence of these psychological constructs. In three studies with high school students ( n s = 256, 149, 250) the authors demonstrate that epistemic beliefs and achievement goals form different personal profiles that are differentially related to learning strategies.