BackBackNextNext
Performance versus learning
You need to make up your mind when you develop your learning strategy:

is the most important thing for you to learn something, or is it to take an exam and be done with it?

You need to choose between performance goals and learning goals.

  1. Performance goals
    With performance goals your priority is to get praise / good marks, avoid unfavourable judgements, outperform others or avoid being perceived as incompetent.

    When you emphasise performance goals, it is likely that you will try to avoid challenges unless you are certain of success.

    If you fail, you tend to respond by self-handicapping and learned helplessness.

    Performance goals are likely to lead to focusing on ability rather than effort attributions and to result in feelings of learned helplessness.

    Performance goals are also called 'artificial motivation' because you work for praise, grades, salary / punishment etc.
    Performance goals may seem discouraging, because much depends on what other people do or do not do.
    You depend too much on external and uncontrollable factors.

    Students choosing performance goals, will tend to go for surface learning strategies.
    They will cram facts and details.
    They attempt to passively reproduce most of what they have read.
    They seek the "right answer" that they think will please the teachers.
  1. Learning goals
    With learning goals the priority is to increase your competence.

    When you focus on learning goals you are likely to seek challenges if you think the challenges will lead to greater competence.

    You tend to respond to failure by increasing your efforts.

    Learning goals are also called 'genuine motivation', because the motivation to work stems from the work itself.

    Learning goals are associated with the use of in-depth learning strategies, positive attributions, self-regulation and expectation of mastery.

    You attribute success to internal and controllable factors - in other words you prefer running your own life.

    When choosing in-depth learning strategies, you seek to understand relationships and contexts.
    You read widely and think independently and critically.
    You paraphrase texts and make summaries of what you learn.
    You look for meaning and apply appropriate techniques for organising learning material.
    The content of texts and links with other texts or with previously acquired knowledge, is emphasized.

    The students who make use of such strategies are trying to understand the text by relating its parts to a whole and by integrating new material with existing knowledge, interests and previous experiences.
BackBackNextNext
Study strategies and study techniques
Student? Me?
Motivation
Independency
Academics
Knowledge
Strategies
Reading
Mnemonics
Styles
Excel!