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22 - Conceptualizing Goals in Motivation and Engagement

from Part V - Goals and Values

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  15 February 2019

K. Ann Renninger  and
Suzanne E. Hidi
By
Susan Bobbitt Nolen
K. Ann Renninger
Affiliation:
Swarthmore College, Pennsylvania
Suzanne E. Hidi
Affiliation:
University of Toronto
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Summary

This chapter describes different approaches to the concept of goals in different theoretical explanations of motivation and engagement, considers their limitations, and points out tensions among explanations. Approaches to understanding goals and motivation have varied considerably. Psychological theories, focusing on individual differences or on the effects of context on individuals, aim to predict the relationship of goals to actions and beliefs across settings. More situated approaches have taken the position that individuals are always in context and that the focus of research should be the activity system or the individual-in-context. Research from this perspective investigates how goals arise within activity systems as individuals interact with people and objects over time. Different approaches have led to differences in research questions and methods. The chapter is organized around metatheoretical questions common to the study of goals across theoretical perspectives, including which goals should be studied and promoted in educational settings, the nature of the relationship between individual and context, and the relation of goals to the meaning of activity.

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The Cambridge Handbook of Motivation and Learning , pp. 547 - 565
Publisher: Cambridge University Press
Print publication year: 2019

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