TYPES OF GOALS

Researchers distinguish between two main types of goals: mastery goals, in which learners focus on increasing competence or understanding, and performance goals, in which learners are driven by a desire to appear competent or outperform others

The table below gives us a glimpse of some of the characteristics of an individual with mastery goals versus performance goals

It turns out your mindset has a lot to do with what type of goals you set for yourself. A fixed mindset will lead to more performance type goals, while having a growth mindset leads to more mastery type goals.

The adoption of a growth mindset and mastery goal orientation to learning is likely to be beneficial for learning, while pursuit of performance goals is associated with poor learning-related outcomes.