Goal Structures: The Role of Teachers’ Achievement Goals and Theories of Intelligence

This study investigated how teachers’ achievement goals for teaching and implicit theories of their students’ intelligence are associated with the goal structures that they create in their classrooms. Teachers (N = 209) reported their achievement goals for teaching (mastery, performance-approach goals, and performance-avoidance goals), implicit theories of intelligence (belief that their students’ intellectual ability is malleable or fixed), and achievement goal structures that they created within their classroom (mastery vs. performance goal structures). In general, mastery goals for teaching positively predicted classroom mastery goal structure while performance-approach goals for teaching positively predicted classroom performance goal structure. However, there were significant interactions between mastery and performance-approach goals and between performance-avoidance goals and implicit theory of students’ intelligence. Theoretical and practical implications are discussed.