Teacher preferences for mastery-oriented students

The relationship between college students' goal orientations and teachers' subjective ratings of students was examined. Mastery (concern with improving competence) and performance (concern with proving competence to others) goals were distinguished according to Dweck and Leggett's (1988) theory. The authors predicted that the teachers would give more favorable ratings to high-mastery students than to low-mastery students on 12 separate dimensions, including likelihood of being a successful teacher. The relationship among goals, critical thinking skills, and final course grades was also examined. The results showed a strong relationship between mastery goals and teacher ratings, but no relationship among goals, grades, and an objective measure of critical thinking. Implications for future research are discussed.