Continental J.

Education Research 3:1 - 6, 2010 ISSN: 2141 - 4181

©Wilolud Journals, 2010 http://www.wiloludjournal.com

METACOGNITION AND ACHIEVEMENT GOALS AS CORRELATES OF ACADEMIC SUCCESS

Uwazurike Ndidiamaka .R
Department of Educational Psychology, Alvan Ikoku Federal College of Education, Owerri

ABSTRACT
This study examined the relationship between mastery goals, performance goals,
metacognition and academic success. The study adopted an analytical survey involving 179
undergraduates (87 females, 92 males) of the Alvan Ikoku Federal College of Education,
Owerri. Two hypotheses guided the study, the study was analyzed using Pearson r. The
instruments for data collection were the metacognitive awareness inventory, the mastery goal
items and performance goals. Findings of the study showed that mastery goals were related to
GPA whereas performance goals were unrelated to GPA performance. Metacognition is also
related to academic success and students with good metacognition have good GPAs. Mastery
goals influence GPAs through metacognition as students with mastery goals may have superior
metacognitive skills and strategies that they use to master information. The researcher
recommends that teachers adopt teaching techniques that present information to students in a
way that encourages the use of mastery goal and metacognitive strategies.

KEYWORDS: Metacognition, Achievement goals, Cognition, Academic success

INTRODUCTION
This study has focused on variables such as Metacognition, Achievement goals and Academic success. These
variables when taught to students is expected to augment their learning and academic outcomes. The study examined
how metacognition and achievement goals correlate with academic success.

Metacognition
Metacognition refers to one’s ability to know and regulate cognitive processes (Schraw & Moshman, 1995). Flavell
(1979) conceptualized Metacognition as “knowledge and cognition about cognitive phenomena”. Simply stated,
Metacognition is thinking about your thinking. Metacognition has been described as the ability to calibrate or
monitor one’s performance and chart learning plans based on learning and performance estimates (Dunlosky and
Thiede, 1998). Good metacognition extends beyond the academic periphery and may be responsible for effective
leadership, procuring promotions in the workplace, and achieving similar salient goals in life (Kruger and Dunning,
1999). Kruger and Dunning successfully demonstrated the extent of individuals’ differences in metacognition.
Participants in their study provided estimates of their performance and their peers’ performance before they took
tests. Students with poor metacognition provided inflated estimates of their performance relative to their peers and
failed to recognize their erroneous responses on test items. Students with good metacognition provided realistic
estimates of their performance preceding the test and were able to recognize items they failed to respond to
correctly.

Metacognition is a strong predictor of academic success and problem-solving ability (Dunlosky and Thiede, 1998);
Thiede et al., 2003). Students who are able to effectively discriminate between information they have learned and
information they have not learned are more likely to review and learn new information (Everson and Tobias, 1998).
If students believe they know everything for the test, they will probably end their studies. Premature cessation of
studying before learning is completed will most likely result in poor performance. Fortunately, students with poor
metacognition are not doomed to poor learning and inadequate performance. A vast body of research has
consistently shown that metacognitive training, in addition to task-based training, is effective in improving learning
and performance outcomes (Thiede et al., 2003; Krugar and Dunning, 1999, Leisure, 1997; Kohler, 2002).

Metacognition is comprised of two major components: metacognitive knowledge and metacognitive regulation
(Schraw and Moshman, 1995). Metacognitive knowledge refers to knowledge of cognition such as knowledge of
skills and strategies that work best for the learner and how and when to use such skills and strategies. Metacognitive
regulation refers to activities that control one’s thinking and learning such as planning, monitoring, comprehension,
and evaluation (Schraw and Dennison, 1994).

Achievement Goals
The second variable in this study is achievement goals. Whenever students are in learning environments, they are
believed to have certain goals towards learning, referred to as achievement goals. Achievement goals are the types
of outcomes students pursue in mastery goals and performance goals (Dweck and Leggett, 1988).
 Uwazurike Ndidiamaka .R: Continental J. Education Research 3:1 - 6, 2010

Mastery goals orient students to a focus on learning and mastery of content, and have been linked to adaptive
outcomes such as strong self-efficacy, good metacognition, and good performance. People with mastery goals seek
challenging tasks and strive under difficult situations. When faced with failure, they respond with solution-oriented
instructions, as well as sustained or increased positive affect and sustained or improved performance. Performance
goals encourage students to focus on scoring better than others or avoiding the appearance of incompetence (Dweck
and Leggett, 1988). People with performance goals strive to demonstrate ability and avoid negative judgments of
competence. They evade challenges and obstacles, and prefer simple task where success is guaranteed. When
confronted with challenging tasks, they may react in a number of ways: withdraw due to risk of failure, demonstrate
negative affect, make negative ability attributions and report decreased interest in the task. Research suggests that
goal orientations may exist independently of each other, allowing students to adopt multiple goals simultaneously,
such as an orientation towards mastery of information as well as striving to perform well on a test. Students may
adopt only one goal, or both goals with one being a primary goal and the other being a secondary goal.

Academic Success
The 21st century students to be academically successful must posses the following:
• able to analyze, synthesize and evaluate information.
• able to effectively communicate with others.
• proficient in science, mathematics, computer/technical skills, foreign languages, as well as history,
geography, and global awareness.
• capable of collaboratively working in culturally diverse settings.
• leaders who see projects through to completion.
• responsible decision makers who are self-motivated and active political participants and
• ethical individuals who are committed to their families, communities and colleagues (Nidds & McGerald,
1996).

In addition to reading, writing and arithmetic, successful students should learn to effectively balance the social and
academic aspects of school, expect to succeed, may be described as socially proficient, goal oriented, and
intrinsically motivated (Ellis & Worthington, 1994; Scheuemann, 2000).

Academic success is important because it is strongly linked to the positive outcomes we value for children. Research
shows that adults with high levels of education are more likely to be employed and to earn higher salaries (National
Centre for Education Statistics, 2001). They are likely to be less engaged in criminal activities and less dependent on
public assistance. They are likely to be more healthier, have health insurance and are likely to be active citizens and
charitable volunteers of their environment.

Problem
Most students, it is observed do not master content of their subject matter and do not focus adequately on learning.
For these to occur, it has to be linked to adaptive outcomes such as strong self-efficacy, good metacognition and
good performance. Majority of the students are seen to avoid challenging tasks and do not strive under difficult
situations. They are seen to prefer simple tasks where success is guaranteed. When the students are faced with
failure, they seem not to respond with solution-oriented instructions, as well as sustained increased positive affect
and sustained or improved performance. When most students are confronted with challenging tasks, they may react
in a number of ways; withdrawn due to the risk of failure to demonstrate negative affect, make negative ability
attributions and report decreased interest in a task. It is also observed that most students lack metacognitive ability or
are poor in metacognition and therefore deemed ‘incompetent’ as they perform inadequately relative to their peers.
Metacognition it is hoped will enable students to be strategic in their learning by learning new information rather
than focusing on studying information already learned.

This study therefore examines the relationship between achievement goals and academic success as being fully
mediated by metacognition.

Purpose of Study
Generally, this study sets out to ascertain the relationship between mastery and performance goals as related to
academic success through metacognition.
Specifically, the study did the following:
• determine the relationship between mastery goals and academic success as mediated by metacognition.
• find out the relationship between performance goals and academic success as mediated by metacognition.

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The study was guided by two hypotheses:

• There will be no significant relationship between mastery goals and academic success as mediated by
metacognition.
• There will be no significant relationship between performance goals and academic success as mediated by
metacognition.

METHOD
The study adopted descriptive and analytical survey. The subjects for the study were 179 undergraduates (87
females, 92 males) from Alvan Ikoku Federal College of Education Owerri). Participants were informed the purpose
of the experiment. The survey was descriptive because research questions were answered with descriptive statistics
while it went further test the hypotheses using statistical tools as in Pearson r and t-test.

INSTRUMENT
The instrument is a Goal Inventory (GI) modified from (Roedel, Schraw and Plake 1994). It is a 25 item goal
inventory for assessing mastery and performance. Students responded to each item on a four point-scale of Strongly
Agree (SA), Agree (A), Disagree (D) and Strongly disagree as well as their college G.P.A. Metacognitive
Awareness Inventory (MAI) which as modified from Schraw and Dennison, 1994), was also used. It is a 25 item
inventory which is used to assess various facets of metacognition.

Validation of the Instrument

The instrument for data collection was subjected to content validity by its submission to experts in psychology and 2
experts in measurements and evaluation for their input and necessary corrections. These experts ensured the face and
content validity of the instrument through their input and necessary correction. The researcher made the necessary
corrections. The items of the goal inventory were subjected to thorough scrutiny for their word appropriateness. The
Metacognitive Awareness Inventory (MAI) , modified from Schraw and Dennison, (1994 )were also revalidated for
their appropriateness.

Reliability of the Instruments

The instruments were subjected to Cronbach alpha reliability measure where the subjects not used as sample for the
study were used. The internal consistency measure was 0.69.

Procedure
Participants were informed that the purpose of the study was to ascertain the relationship between mastery and
performance goals as related to academic success through metacognition. All participants completed the goal
inventory comprising of mastery and performance items, G.P.A scale and Metacognition Awareness Inventory
(MAI). Information on the distribution of scores were shown below.

Conceptual Framework
This study is based on construction and goal theories. Constructivism is basically a theory-based on observation and
scientific study – about how people learn. It says that people construct their own understanding and knowledge of
the world, through experiencing things ad reflecting on those experiences. When we encounter something new, we
have to reconcile it with previous ideas and experience, may be changing what we believe, or may be discarding the
new information as irrelevant. In any case, we are active creators of our own knowledge,. To do this, we must ask
questions, explore, and assess what we know.

In the classroom, the constructivist view of learning can point towards a number of different teaching practices. In
the most general sense, it usually means encouraging students to use active techniques (experiments, real world
problem solving) to create more knowledge and then to reflect on and talk about what they are doing and how their
understanding is changing. The teacher makes sure she understands the students’ preexisting conceptions and guides
the activity to address them and then build on them.

As with many of the methods addressed in this series of workshops, in the constructivist classroom, the focus tends
to shift from the teacher to the students. The classroom is no longer a place where the teacher (“expert”) pours
knowledge into passive students, who wait like empty vessels to be filled. In the constructivist model, the students
are urged to be actively involved in their own process of learning. The teacher functions more as a facilitator who
coaches, mediates, prompts, and helps students develop and assess their understanding, and thereby their learning.
One of the teacher’s biggest jobs becomes ASKING GOOD QUESTIONS.

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Goal Theory
Goal theory is a theory used to address the intrinsic motivation of students during the process of learning. Research
in goal theory has identified the following dichotomies namely: mastery and performance orientation.

Mastery Orientation
Mastery orientation is described as a student’s wish to become proficient in a topic to the best of his or her ability.
The student’s sense of satisfaction with the work is not influenced by external performance indicators such as
grades. Mastery orientation is associated with deeper engagement with the task and greater perseverance in the face
of setbacks (Ames, 1992). Mastery orientation is thought to increase a student’s intrinsic motivation.

Performance Orientation
Performance orientation is described as a student’s wish to achieve highly on external indicators of success, such as
grades. The student’s sense of satisfaction is highly influenced by their grades and so it is associated with
discouragement in the face of low marks. Performance orientation is also associated with higher states of anxiety. In
addition, the desire for high marks increase the temptation to cheat to engage in shallow rote-learning instead of
deep understanding.

Performance orientation is thought to increase a student’s intrinsic motivation if they perform well, but to decrease
motivation when they perform badly.

RESULTS
Table 1: Relationship between mastery goals and performance goals
Variables N r-value Result
Mastery goal
Performance goals 179 0.24 Insignificant

Table 1 shows that there is a weak correlation between the performance goal and mastery goals as is indicative of
the r-value of 0.24.

Table 2: Relationship between mastery goals and metacognition

Variables N r-value Result
Mastery goal
Metacognition 179 0.73 Significant

Table 2 indicates a strong correlation between mastery goal and metacognition as the r-value of 0.73 was obtained.

Table 3: Relationship between performance goal and metacognition

Variables N r-value Result
Performance goal
Metacognition 179 0.26 Insignificant

Table 3 shows no strong relationship between metacognition and performance goals for the obtained r-value is 0.26

Table 4: Relationship between mastery goals and GPA

Variables N r-value Result
Mastery goal
GPA 179 0.29 Insignificant

Table 4 reveals that a modest correlation exists between the mastery goal and GPA for the r-value was 0.29

Table 5: Relationship between performance goals and GPA

Variables N r-value Result
Performance goal
GPA 179 0.10 Insignificant

Table 5 shows a very weak relationship between performance goals and GPA as the calculated value was 0.10.
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Table 6: Relationship between metacognition and performance goals

Variables N r-value Result
Metacognition
GPA 179 0.21 Insignificant

Table 6 shows a weak relationship between metacognition and performance goals as the r-value was 0.21.

DISCUSSION
Results showed that mastery goals were related to GPA performance whereas performance goals were unrelated to
GPA performance. This suggests that students with the intent to deeply comprehend information tend to be
successful in their academic performance. Students who seek to simply perform well on a test without understanding
the information do not necessarily have good performance. Metacognition is also related to academic success and
students with good metacognition have good GPAs. Mastery goals influence GPAs through metacognition as
students with mastery goals may have superior metacognitive skills and strategies that they use for mastery
information; the use of superior metacognition eventually leads to enhanced GPA. This is in line with Dunlosky and
Thiede (1998) opinion which says that metacognition is a predictor of academic performance and it is important in
successfully solving cognitively challenging problems.

Students with mastery goals are more likely to have good metacognition, and thereby, be better learners than
students with performance goals. Students with performance goals may not enjoy the fruit of academic success even
though they strive to perform well. Students should be encouraged to adopt a mastery approach to learning. Students
who tend to be driven by performance goals may benefit from training related to mastery goals and metacognition.
This agrees with Coutinho (2006) that mastery goals influence performance directly and indirectly through
metacognition.

The findings of the study showed that performance goals had no relationship with GPA. This finding is in agreement
with Butler (1993); Mathieu and Zajac (1996) findings where they found no relationship between performance goals
and performance.

Results showed that mastery goals were related to GPA performance whereas performance goals were unrelated to
GPA performance.

Limitations
There are some limitations to this study. The descriptive and analytical survey nature of the study made it difficult
for the researcher to verify if students responses on metacognition and mastery goals performance were accurate as
they relate to academic success.

Another limitation to this study is that such responses could be perceived responses and not the actual responses of
the students.

Thirdly, the survey nature of the study made it difficult to assess the causes of the relationships as indicated in the
findings of the study.

Finally, emphasis was placed on performance and not learning.

Recommendations
The researcher proffers the following recommendations:
• Training programmes instructing students on how to adopt effective Metacognitive skills and strategies and
learn how to master information instead of simply seeking to perform well.
• Teachers should adopt teaching techniques that present information to students in a way that encourages the
use of mastery goals and Metacognitive strategies.
• Teachers should teach for creativity, acquisition of skills, and understanding for transferability rather than
rote memorizations.

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Received for Publication: 18/03/2010

Accepted for Publication: 07/04/2010