1

Strategies for Using Goal Setting to Improve the Achievement

Motivation of Elementary Students

Sarah K. Wiggins

9120 Stone Croft Way

Gainesville, Ga. 30506

An Annotated Bibliography Submitted to:

Dr. D. A. Battle of Georgia Southern University
In partial fulfillment of the requirements for
FRLT 7130 – Y01

Friday, April 17, 2009

Statesboro, Georgia

1
 2

Strategies for Using Goal Setting to Improve the Achievement

Motivation of Elementary Students

In the midst of a time of great pressures on teachers to leave no child behind, it has

become increasingly frustrating to motivate students to learn. As a general education teacher, I

spend much of my after school time in IST (Instructional Support Team) and SST (Student

Support Team) meetings discussing what strategies we are using to meet the needs of students.

However, in the current RTI (Response to Intervention) design that our county is using, if

motivation is seen as the issue, the child’s case is dismissed.

However, this year, four weeks prior to the CRCT, the administration in my school

became very concerned about these unmotivated students and put into place a total extrinsic

reward system in an attempt to motivate them. This sparked a controversy that caused the entire

staff to finally take notice of the fact that these students should have been monitored throughout

the years, and the educators should have been working to find motivational strategies that were

successful.

Most educators are not aware of strategies besides the token systems or the treasure box

to motivate students. My research focuses on strategies of goal setting using intrinsic motivation.

Given that most apathy is established in the later elementary years when students begin to see

their own failures, I have chosen to research the grades of fourth to sixth grade. I used two

databases to research the topic: Academic Search Complete and EBSCO host. Both were equally

helpful. I searched for articles that helped to define goal setting, intrinsic motivation, and

strategies for implementing these. Additionally, I looked for articles that combined these aspects

and helped to raise student achievement among unmotivated learners.

2
 3

Covington, M. V. (2000, February). Intrinsic versus extrinsic motivation in schools: A

reconciliation. Current Directions in Psychological Science, 9,(1),22 – 25. Retrieved

April 4, 2009, from Academic Search Complete database.

The authors of this article examine the relationships between intrinsic and extrinsic rewards.

Instead of viewing extrinsic as a negative approach to motivation, the article demonstrates that

extrinsic rewards such as grades can work together with intrinsic rewards of the desire to learn.

In order for these to work hand in hand the author states that students will have an intrinsic value

when they are (a) achieving good grades, (b) interested in what they are learning, and (c)

engaged in what they are learning.

Kostelecky, K. L., & Hoskinson, M. J. (2005). A “novel” approach to motivating students.

Education, 125,(3),438 – 442. Retrieved March 29, 2009, from EBSCO host database.

The authors of this article feel that students are very capable of learning, but if content and

instruction seems irrelevant to their lives, they may be unmotivated to learn. Intrinsic motivation

can stem from curiosity, which in turn can cause students to desire to learn about various

contents. The author suggests the strategy of novel studies to spark students’ curiosity in content

areas. Through this process the student can begin to set goals for themselves in reading and in

turn learn the content and be exposed to language.

Kuhn, D. (2007, June). How to produce a high achieving child. Phi Delta Kappan, 88,(10), 757 –

763. Retrieved March 29, 2009, from Academic Search Complete database.

3
 4

This article looks at two groups of learners; one is performance oriented while the other is

learning oriented. Studies show that learning oriented students will continue to pursue

knowledge for intrinsic purposes, but performance based students, tend to narrow their focus to

things in which they can be successful, and often become unmotivated. Instead, the author

suggests motivation needs to be more self-regulated to help all learners have an inner drive. One

strategy suggested is to make education relevant, giving students a goal orientation to want to be

engaged.

Linnenbrink, E. A. (2005). The dilemma of performance-approach goals: The use of multiple

goal context to promote students’ motivation and learning. Journal of Educational

Psychology, 97,(2), 197-213. Retrieved March 29, 2009, from EBSCOhost database.

This study was for the purpose of showing that personal mastery goals will help to prevent the

negative effects of personal performance approach goals. The researcher used an elementary

math class to prove that classrooms conducive to personal goal orientation are more beneficial.

The hypotheses presented were not conclusive. There was evidence of motivational patterns in

personal goals versus classroom goals. When groups compete with other groups, participants are

more engaged. The opposite is seen with individual competition. Small groups and teamwork

could work as a form of intrinsic motivation.

Pachtman, A. B., & Wilson, K. A. (2006, April). What do the kids think?. International Reading

Association, 59,(7),680-684. Retrieved April 4, 2009, from Academic Search Complete

database.

4
 5

The study of this article was for the purpose of asking students what motivates them to read. The

research was done in a fourth grade reading class that exposed students to a classroom library

and a variety of reading strategies. The results of the survey show that students who set personal

goals and are within proximity to books are more likely to read and complete books.

Additionally, students can see that their personal goals help to reach the classroom goals, and

this makes them even more successful in the end.

Ryan, R. M. & Deci, E. L. (2000). Intrinsic and extrinsic motivations: Classic definitions and

new directions. Contemporary Educational Psychology, 25, 54 - 67. Retrieved March 30,

2009, from Academic Search Complete database.

This article was written to present the Self Determination Theory. This theory suggests that

intrinsic and extrinsic motivation can work together to develop an individual’s overall

motivation. The authors shared various studies that gave evidence to the fact that when a person

is motivated extrinsically it can actually help to foster internalization and make connections.

Students can use outside motivators to make connections to an inner drive. The article suggests

that classrooms need to offer conditions that can help to foster such self determination through

interesting and engaging lessons.

Sideridis, G. D., & Tsorbatzoudis, C. (2003). Intra-group motivational analysis of students with

learning disabilities: A goal oriented approach. Learning Disabilities: A Contemporary

Journal,1,(1),8 - 19. Retrieved March 29, 2009, from EBSCOhost database.

5
 6

This article introduced a study done on fifth grade students with and without learning disabilities

to identify how achievement goal theory and goal orientation impacted their motivation. The

researcher described the concern with motivation specifically in learning disabled students. The

results demonstrated that the LD students displayed learned helplessness due to repeated failures.

The research suggests that when learning goals were in place, and self monitored, both the

regular education students as well as the learning disabled students were able to increase their

motivation and their achievement.

Tapola, A., & Niemivirta, M. (2008). The role of achievement goal orientations in students’

perceptions of and preferences for classroom environment. British Journal of

Educational Psychology, 78, 291 - 312. Retrieved March 29, 2009, from EBSCOhost

database.

This article is a study that was completed in Finland with late elementary students to show that

there is a direct relationship between students’ goal orientation and their motivation. The

researchers demonstrated that performance oriented students have a lower self esteem and tend

to give up easier. The study also showed that those students who are avoidance oriented tended

to withdrawal completely from a task. The results demonstrated that when students are equipped

with learning oriented goals, they are self motivated, and can raise their level of motivation.

Wigfiled, A., & Wentzel, K. R. (2007). Introduction to motivation at school: Interventions that

work. Educational Psychologist, 42,(4), 191-196. Retrieved March 29, 2009, from

EBSCOhost database.

6
 7

This article was a prelude to a special edition of the journal that focused on successful

interventions for improving student motivation. Prior research is acknowledged, showing that

self efficacy, goal orientation, and peer relationships can be a primary cause to low motivation.

The authors show academic goals can influence motivation goals, and social goals can impact

positive peer relationships that in turn can raise achievement. The article introduces three

additional articles by Juvonen, Felner, and Balfanz that all provide interventions to help improve

student motivation through goal setting.

Implications for Applications to Educational Settings

Upon choosing this topic I was confident I would find evidence to support that the

current response to intervention methods used by our county do a disservice to our unmotivated

students. The research not only supports my claim, but has allowed me to view strategies for goal

setting that can be used with every student from high achieving to diagnosed learning disabled.

The explanations provided by Kuhn (2007) and Tapola (2008) for the two types of goal

orientation; learning or performance oriented, are very helpful to see that as an educator I need to

identify what a child’s orientation is so that I can use strategies to help them improve their

achievement. The orientation can be used to know where to begin looking to see where the

motivation stopped. Wigfield (2007) shared in his article that when a history of failure is

established, motivation will decline. Therefore, if the child’s orientation is performance based,

the strategies need to provide a form of extrinsic motivation in the form of praise during

demonstrating the skill. This thought process of extrinsic motivation building intrinsic

motivation is the underlying theme of Ryan’s (2000) article. This information actually

7
 8

contradicted my original thoughts that all motivation should come from an intrinsic perspective. I

was able to gain a better understanding of how to use these goals together to help them to

become more personal.

Some of the most compelling strategies were presented in Pachtman’s (2006) article. It

was interesting to see how the students responded to the reading program. Through setting

personal goals, and team goals, the students were interested in accomplishing not only an

independent goal, but a class goal, and everyone worked together to succeed. Reading is a

concern in regards to lack of motivation in our low level students. The strategies suggested for

reading; make choices, and small groups that work together to accomplish the students’ personal

and group goals can be very effective. Additionally, I think the strategy presented by Sideridis

(2003) to match learning disabled students with higher achieving students is one that can be used

across all levels and in all content.

The studies all demonstrate that when students have identified goal orientation, set

personal goals, and are involved with classroom goals, the results are more engaged learners and

higher achievement. This is the result I want to see happening in the lives of our students. With

such strategies, it is clear to me that the current RTI process needs to be reconsidered and

unmotivated learners need to be given specific strategies such as learning goals to be successful.