Formative assessment as a future step in maintaining the mastery-approach and performance-avoidance goal stability

The study presented in this article examines which achievement-goal pattern students pursue in a formative assessment practice that facilitates mastery and learning opportunities. An explanatory mixed-method design with three complementary data-analytic approaches (differential continuity, mean-level change and individual level change) and four focus-group interviews were used to examine this topic. In five preparatory engineering courses "seven principles of good feedback practice" were implemented as an educational tool to facilitate and create a formative assessment practice aimed at promoting the significance of mastery and learning experiences. In contradiction to previous research, the findings in this study suggests an alternative achievement-goal pattern, and has to some extent succeeded in avoiding the proliferation of unfortunate motivational patterns found in earlier studies. The findings of this study argues for the importance of teachers' efforts in relation to the development of students' achievement-goal patterns, and furthermore for maintaining achievement-goal stability.