TEACHERS’ PERCEPTION OF SCHOOL GOALS AND APPROACHES TO INSTRUCTION: EFFECTS ON STUDENTS’ ACHIEVEMENT GOALS

Abstract

Secondary school is considered to be the gateway for development of other
sectors of education. It provides students the opportunity for quality
education and a platform from which to proceed to higher education or
vocational work. It has been a challenge for secondary schools to
incorporate relevant skills, knowledge, and experience in the teachinglearning process as to address students’ needs. Some students learn
English better than others even if they are given the same opportunities.
The present study intended to make contributions in clarifying the findings
regarding effects of goal orientations on students’ academic achievement
in the subject of English. This study aimed to determine the effect of
teachers’ goals and approaches to instruction on student achievement
goals in the subject of English at secondary level. Main objectives of the
study were to Survey the teachers’ perceptions of school goal structures
for students, investigate the effects of teachers’ perceptions of school goal
structures and their approaches towards instruction on students’
achievement goal orientation and to determine the kind of approaches
teachers had towards instruction. It is a survey research and it was
conducted in conventional classrooms in government Higher Secondary
schools in district Peshawar. The sample consisted of 224 male and female
teachers. The Patterns for Adaptive Learning Scale (PALS) developed and
revised by Midgley et al, (2000) was used for the study. Descriptive
statistics and correlation analysis were applied to identify teachers’ goals
and approaches to instruction and its relationship with students’
achievement goal orientation. It was concluded that teachers’ perception of school goal structure was not significantly correlated with students’
achievement goal orientation. Teachers had low mastery approaches to
instruction. Gender differences were found as more female teachers had
high mastery approaches to instruction than male teachers