Various factors motivate people to pursue knowledge, from a desire to be better to a wish to demonstrate their superiority over others or at least not be the worst out of their group. Thus, people’s motivation decides the nature of their goals, which may be either mastery goals aimed to achieve a particular independent result or performance goals, which conversely hinges on the success of other participants. Thus, to interact with students adequately, it is imperative to understand their approach to goal setting and, coincidentally, their relationship with their education process.
Any educative plan may have potential shortcomings, and mastery versus performance goals could be one of the most divisive types of factors within the learning process. Research has shown that even socioeconomic status makes students revert to different ways of achieving success within a classroom, as wealthier pupils, for example, benefit more from performance-approach goals. Furthermore, each approach may have potential shortcomings stemming from their definition, such as mastery goals requiring constant motivation, performance-approach objectives hinging on the exemplary learner’’ existence, and performance-avoidance ones undermining the teacher-student relationship. Nonetheless, mastery goals help pupils achieve more extended memory of taught material, while performance approach and avoidance equally motivate students to avoid failure, often at a high cost. Thus, the idea that “not all approach goals are beneficial for all students” remains crucial when deciding the preferred orientation when teaching. Nonetheless, mastery goals that help create long-lasting skills remain the most beneficial.
Varying the implementation of mastery, performance-approach, and performance-avoidance goals for different pupils may be beneficial, providing me, as the teacher, with a straightforward approach to students’ different education stances. Instituting the chosen mastery goals in a real-life situation becomes possible through maintaining the motivation of high-achieving learners and providing them with the necessary knowledge and difficulty in attaining it. Nonetheless, it is essential to recognize ineffective methods where they exist, and I hope to be flexible in my classroom to accommodate varying types of pupils.