Examining middle school students' goal orientations and achievement emotions through various variables

The aim of this study is to examine the effects of gender, grade level, and academic achievement on middle school students' goal orientations and achievement emotions regarding science lessons, and to evaluate the relationships between goal orientations and achievement emotions. The study includes a total of 468 middle school students attending primary education institutions affiliated with the Çorum Provincial Directorate of National Education. The analysis results indicated that gender has significant effects on students' goal orientations and achievement emotions. Male students' learning-approach scores were higher than those of female students, and eighth-grade students' performance-approach, learning-avoidance, and performance-avoidance scores were lower compared to other grades. Furthermore, male students' enjoyment, pride, and anxiety emotions were found to be higher than those of female students. There was no significant difference in achievement emotions according to grade level. Positive relationships were found between learning-approach and enjoyment and pride, and between performance-approach and pride. Positive relationships were also identified between learning-avoidance and performance-avoidance and the emotions of anxiety, shame, hopelessness, and boredom. Path analysis results showed that learning-approach significantly affects the emotion of enjoyment, performance-approach affects the emotion of pride, learning-avoidance affects the emotion of boredom, and performance-avoidance significantly affects the emotions of shame, hopelessness, and anxiety. These findings suggest that educational strategies should be differentiated based on gender, grade level, and goal orientations.