Mastery vs. Performance

 Mastery vs. Performance: Shaping the Educational Experience

 

What are Mastery and Performance Goals?

Mastery Goals:

• Definition: Focus on developing competence and learning new skills.
• Characteristics: Emphasis is placed on personal growth, understanding, and the process of learning.
• Benefits: Encourages persistence, fosters intrinsic motivation, and enhances self-efficacy.

Performance Goals:

• Definition: Focus on demonstrating competence and outperforming others.
• Characteristics: Emphasis is placed on winning and being judged favorably compared to others.
• Drawbacks: Can lead to anxiety, avoidance of challenging tasks, and a tendency to engage in self-handicapping behaviors.

   

 Needless to say, whether taking a performance approach or mastery approach is highly dependent on the learning environment. For instance, in a class where the teacher only seeks outcome like "I want you all have a publishable paper by the end of the semester" well here students might take a performance approach as the grade and performance is going to be judged based on whether they could have a finished paper or not by the end of the semester.

 Whereas, in place where the outcome is on learning and applying a knowledge in a context, students are feeling more safe and freedom to learn from their mistakes but in the previous example mistakes will lead to lower grades and failure!

 However, the goal of education is to create mastery goal mindset that students can carry in other areas of their future lives. This mindset is helpful in variety of areas beyond just education.

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Reference:

Urdan, T., & Kaplan, A. (2020). The origins, evolution, and future directions of achievement goal theory. Contemporary Educational Psychology, 61, 101862. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.cedpsych.2020.101862