Cross-cultural differences in motivation

Large-scale international assessments have shown that students from different Asia-Pacific countries and economies differ from their Western counterparts in their levels of academic achievement. This chapter offers a potential theoretical advancement that achievement goals, as an achievement motivation construct, could be used to explain such cross-cultural differences. We discuss four types of achievement goals in motivation – mastery-approach, mastery-avoidance, performance-approach, and performance-avoidance goals – and examine how achievement goals are endorsed by students in different cultures and in particular in the Asia-Pacific, and how this endorsement is associated with their learning and achievement. Specifically, this chapter (1) provides a brief account of the theoretical development of achievement goal theory, (2) reviews achievement goal studies, particularly those involving students from the Asia-Pacific region, and examines cross-cultural differences in goal endorsement and associations between achievement goals and outcome correlates, (3) explores the sociocultural factors contributing to such cross-cultural differences, (4) identifies gaps in the reviewed literature on achievement goals and offers recommendations for future studies, and lastly (5) proposes the Ecological System Model of Achievement Goal Complexes and Academic Achievement, which provides researchers a new direction to study culture, achievement goals, and academic achievement. Our reviews show that students from the Asia-Pacific countries and economies, who held collectivistic values and were driven by socially oriented achievement motives, were more likely to endorse performance-approach, performance-avoidance, and mastery-avoidance goals. Further, performance-approach and performance-avoidance goals were found to have differential impact on academic outcomes depending on students’ cultural group or values. An increased awareness of the interplay among culture, achievement goals, and academic achievement is essential to help practitioners design culturally appropriate interventions and instructional practices that engender optimal academic outcomes for students of different cultural backgrounds.