Examination of achievement orientations of university students in terms of different variables

The purpose of this study was to examine university students' achievement orientations in terms of different variables. First of all, the participants' level of learning-approach, learning-avoidance, performance-approach and performance-avoidance, which are sub-dimensions of achievement orientation, were examined. Next, it was examined to determine whether the sub-dimensions of achievement orientations differed in terms of participants' gender, grade level, academic achievement level, perception of academic achievement, and meaning attributed to academic achievement. Finally, the relationship between the achievement orientations sub-dimensions of university students and their competitive attitudes and stresses related to their level of academic expectations were examined. The sample of this study consists of 880 university students studying in different teaching programs in the School of Education at Siirt University. The data was obtained by using "2 x 2 Achievement Orientation Scale", "Competitive Attitude Scale", "St Stress Inventory for Academic Expectations" and "Personal Information Form". Descriptive statistical, one-way analysis of variance, and Pearson moment correlation coefficient were used to analyze the data. This study found that university students are oriented towards high level of learning-approach, medium level of learning-avoidance, low level of performance-approach and performance-avoidance. In addition, the achievement orientations of university students showed a significant difference in the dimension of learning-avoidance achievement orientation in terms of gender variable, and there was no gender-related differentiation in terms of other dimensions. In terms of grade levels, it is found that the achievement orientations and performance-avoidance sub-dimensions of the fourth grade university students' achievement orientations have a significantly lower average score than the students at the other grade levels. No significant differences were found in learning-approach and learning-avoidance sub-dimensions of achievement orientations according to grade level. In the research, the students who had academic achievement level of "very good" had statistically significant higher score of learning-approach of success-oriented than the students who have academic achievement level of "good", "intermediate", and "pass". Similar result was found for the students who had achievement level of "good" had statistically significant higher score than the ones who had "intermediate", and "pass" scores. It was also found that the students who had "very good" academic level were significantly oriented towards learning-avoidance and achievement-oriented compared to the "passable" students. On the other hand, it was concluded that performance-approach and performance-avoidance achievement orientations of university students did not differ according to academic achievement level. In addition, in the learning-approach dimension of achievement orientations, those who perceive themselves as "successful" were found to be statistically significantly oriented towards learning-approach and achievement-oriented than the ones who perceived themselves to be "intermediate" and "unsuccessful". The same result was found for the ones who perceive to be "moderate" are significantly oriented towards learning-approach and achievement-oriented than the ones who perceived themselves to be "unsuccessful". In the performance-avoidance sub-dimension, it was found that those who perceived themselves as "successful" were significantly more performance-avoidance-oriented than those who perceived themselves as "moderate". In the sub-dimensions of learning-avoidance and performance-approach success orientations, there was no difference in terms of the perception of academic achievement. Analyzing the achievement orientations of university students according to the meaning attributed to academic achievement, significant relationships were obtained in all sub-dimensions, especially in the performance-approach and learning-approach sub-dimensions. Especially the results obtained in the performance-approach sub-dimension are quite striking. Finally, when we look at the relationships between the variables, it was found that there was a moderate positive relationship between learning-avoidance and performance-avoidance and performance-approach and performance-avoidance achievement orientations. It can be said that there is a significant positive relationship between learning-approach and learning-avoidance, and between learning-avoidance and performance-approach and performance-avoidance. While there is a moderate relationship between competitive attitude and performance-approach, a high level of positive relationship is obtained between competitive attitude and avoidance-avoidance. As a result of the study, it is seen that AESI has a moderate positive relationship with learning-avoidance, performance-approach and performance-avoidance. Keywords: achievement orientations, learning-approach, learning-avoidance, performance-approach, performance-avoidance, competitive attitude, stress on academic expectations