A social perspective on learning motivation: Network-analytic examination of students goal orientations

Journal article

Educational science evidenced not only the positive effect of learning motivation, but also the importance of the associated concept of goal orientation for students’ school achievement. Given the facts that the form of goal orientation differs, on the one hand, with regard to the relevance of social influence and is, on the other hand, affected by social influence processes, social network analysis promises valuable insights. In the present study, a total of 3015 seventh graders (MAGE = 13.68 years, 56 % girls) from 166 school classes provided information on goal orientation that were related to friendship patterns, which allowed investigating the social influence processes with the help of social network analysis. A three-level-random-intercept model (level 1: students, level 2: peer groups, level 3: school classes) predicted students goal orientations by modelling network parameters. As expected, findings reveal that students goal orientations are associated with the extent of social influence as well as the kind of social influence. Hence the present study underscores the value of a social network perspective for analyzing students’ learning motivation.

Authors: Woelfer, R; Cortina, K

• Publication status: Published
• Peer review status: Peer reviewed
• Publisher: Springer Fachmedien Wiesbaden
• Journal: Zeitschrift für Erziehungswissenschaft
• Volume: 17
• Issue: S5
• Pages: 189-204
• Publication date: 2014-09-13
• DOI: 10.1007/s11618-014-0557-7
• EISSN: 1862-5215
• ISSN: 1434-663X
• Keywords: SBTMR; learning motivation; social network analysis; goal orientation