Epistemological beliefs and implicit theories of intelligence as predictors of achievement goals

We examined the relative contribution of epistemological beliefs and implicit theories of intelligence to the adoption of mastery, performance-approach, and performance-avoidance goals, respectively, in a sample of 80 Norwegian student teachers in an innovative, co-operative instructional context with little emphasis on grades and performance evaluation. Epistemological beliefs about the speed of knowledge acquisition predicted achievement goals. Students who believed that learning occurs quickly or not at all were less likely to adopt mastery goals and more likely to adopt performance-approach and performance-avoidance goals. In addition, students who believed in stable and given knowledge were less likely to adopt mastery goals. Epistemological beliefs were found to play more important roles in goal adoption than implicit theories of intelligence. (C) 2003 Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved.