Perceived Peer and Teacher Goals: Relationships with Students' Academic Achievement Goals

Adolescents’ academic achievement goals are associated with their perceptions
of teacher and peer goals. Earlier research focused on perceived
teacher goals, mostly disregarding perceived peer goals’ effects. However,
since peer-group influence becomes prominent during adolescence,
research on students’ perceptions of both peer and teacher goals should
contribute to understanding achievement goals. Our main hypothesis was
that perceived peer goals mediate the relationship between perceived
teacher goals and students’ achievement goals. The research comprised
three independent studies: a pilot study (N¼183) validated a measure of
perceived peer goals adapted for this study. Study 1 (N¼122) found that
perceived peer goals explained more variance in students’ achievement
goals than did perceived teacher goals. Study 2 (N¼415) showed that perceived
peer goals fully mediated the relationship between perceived
teacher goals and students’ achievement goals. These results demonstrated
that the simultaneous examination of perceptions of peers and teachers
enhances our theoretical understanding of significant others’ goals’ relationships
with student achievement goals. Researchers and practitioners
may benefit from considering the interdependence between social and
academic aspects of motivation in classrooms.