Journal of Educational Practice and Research (Dec 2015)
The Revision of Perceived Classroom Goal Structure Scale and the Evaluation of Its Reliability and Validity
Abstract
The measurement of perceptions of classroom goal structure, rooted in achievement goal theory, argued that students could perceive contextual goals shaped by their teachers. Currently, achievement goal has suffered critics on the issues of measurement and theoretical re-conceptualization. However, the revisions of perceived classroom goal structure based on achievement goal theory were rarely investigated in terms of their utility in classroom settings. The purposes of the present study are to: (1) Revise the scale of perceived classroom goal structure according to the problems highlighted by achievement goal researchers; (2) Examine the extent to which the revised model fit the data; (3) Investigate the measurement stability of the theoretical model. In order to achieve the purposes, the present study adopted a three-step sampling procedure, which involved 373, 740, and 767 eighth graders in the pilot study, model verification, and cross-validitation test, respectively. Results showed: (1) The perception of classroom goal structure with six dimensions hold good internal and external validity. However, high correlations among six first-order factors indicated that there were two second-order factors, classroom mastery goal and classroom performance goal, behind the first-order ones. (2) The perceived classroom goal structure scale was good in cross- validation. It indicated that the measurement of classroom goal was fairly stable. In practice, the six aspects composed of task, authority, recognition, grouping, evaluation, and time could be adopted to form a mastery oriented classroom.
