A comparison of the relationships of students' self-efficacy, goal orientation, and achievement across grade levels: a meta-analysis

Students’ self-efficacy and achievement motivation may influence their academic achievement. Through meta-analysis, this study examines relationships of students’ self-efficacy, mastery goal orientation, and performance goal orientation to their achievement. Also, this study analyzes these relationships with achievement across grade levels. This study had three purposes: 1) to compare the strength of relationships among self-efficacy, goal orientation, and academic achievement; 2) to examine the relationship between self-efficacy and achievement when mastery orientation is statistically removed; 3) to determine if differences exist when comparing these relationships across grade levels. Self-efficacy was most strongly related to student achievement, followed by mastery orientation and then performance orientation. The relationship between self-efficacy and achievement was less strong when mastery goal orientation was statistically removed. However, this relationship between self-efficacy and achievement was still higher than that between mastery orientation and achievement. Last, relationships between mastery orientation and performance orientation with achievement differ across grade levels.