Perceived goal structures and student outcomes: Consistency of motivational experiences within and across classrooms

Our study investigates whether motivation experiences are consistent between and within classrooms, focusing on students' perceptions of goal structures, personal achievement goals, and grades. We used multilevel structural equation modeling with data collected from 1268 ninth-grade students (51.7 % females; average age = 14.87; standard deviation = 0.39) placed in 72 classes. Our findings show that students' perceptions of goal structures vary across classrooms, and that shared mastery goal perceptions are positively associated with average classroom grades. Within classrooms, when individual students perceive more mastery-related messages, their personal achievement goals (both mastery and performance) are higher. However, only mastery goals, out of the two student achievement goal orientations, are positively linked with grades and mediate between mastery goal structures and grades. Moreover, students from less affluent families have lower scores on both goal orientations and observe fewer performance-oriented messages in their learning environment; boys report lower mastery orientation. Student background effects on grades are partly explained by achievement goals, suggesting that unequal motivational experiences may partly account for achievement gaps related to social inequalities.