A social cognitive model for academic achievement in Language: The additional contribution of mastery classroom goal structure

Social cognitive theory has proven useful for predicting academic outcomes in several domains, emphasising the explanatory strength of self-efficacy beliefs. The present study investigates the adjustment of a social cognitive model for Language academic achievement in an Argentinean sample who attended 9th grade. The proposed model included predictors such as Writing Self-efficacy, Language Self-efficacy, Verbal Aptitude, and Mastery Classroom Goal Structures. The results showed adequate model fit and moderate explanatory power of Language grades (R-2 = .39). Verbal aptitude and writing self-efficacy beliefs contributed directly to explain Language grades. Additionally, mastery goal structures showed a direct and statistically significant contribution to explaining self-efficacy beliefs for Writing and Language, and an indirect but significant path to Language grades. In general, results support the proposed hypothesis and suggest several applications in educational fields.