Reconsidering Achievement Goal Orientation for Undergraduate Honors Students

Abstract

Previous research has suggested mixed results concerning gifted populations and achievement goal orientation. This study investigated achievement goal orientation in honors and general education undergraduate students, exploring the factor structure of a commonly used assessment and looking at ability level differences using two types of statistical analyses. Responses from 8,530 students across 15 different universities indicated that the Achievement Goal Questionnaire – Revised (AGQ-R) is an adequate measure of the construct for honors and general education students. While independent samples t-tests showed that honors students are higher for several orientations, these differences disappeared in follow-up regression analyses that controlled for demographic characteristics. These results support the importance of appropriate assessment tools and inclusion of control variables when looking for differences between gifted and non-gifted populations.