THREE PATHWAYS FROM ACHIEVEMENT GOALS TO ACADEMIC PERFORMANCE IN AN UNDERGRADUATE STATISTICS COURSE

The purpose of this study was to test three pathways from achievement goals to academic performance in statistics classes. Participants were 247 undergraduate students in psychology taking an introductory course on statistics. They completed questionnaires shortly after the mid-term, and their final grades were provided by their professors at the end of the semester. Structural equation modeling results reveal three distinct paths from achievement goals to academic performance. Results suggest that the more participants adopted mastery goals in the context of their statistics course, the less they experienced anxiety and the better they performed in the course at the end of the semester. First published May 2019 at Statistics Education Research Journal Archives