Peer influence and student goal orientations: A commentary.

Background: Relationships and interactions with peers have been related consistently to a range of motivational outcomes at school. This collection of papers has important implications for and raises interesting questions about the role that classmates play in motivating each other to engage academically. This is especially important given that the 'how' and 'why' of social influence on academic motivation has rarely been addressed in a systematic fashion.

Aims: This commentary addresses four issues: (1) how goals are defined and assessed; (2) how peer contexts, including relationships and interactions, are defined and assessed; (3) how and why peer relationships are related to student goal-setting; and (4) how other social contexts might explain student goal-setting in addition to or instead of peer influence.

Samples and methods: This commentary is organized around seven papers that focus on various aspects of peer relationships in relation to motivation as it manifests in students' goal-setting.

Results: The authors of these papers focus on various aspects of peer relationships and peer-related processes, including social network analysis and peer ratings informed by multiple peers, and students' perceptions of peer-related characteristics and activities using single-informant assessments. The papers focus on peer network characteristics in relation to achievement goal orientations, and how perceived support from peers is related significantly to aspects of self-regulated motivation, including efforts to achieve mastery-related goals.

Conclusions: These papers underscore the notion that social contexts are central to understanding students' motivation to learn. However, many unanswered questions remain concerning when and how peers exert their influence.