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Classroom climate and students’ goal preferences: A cross‐cultural comparison
Author(s) -
VEDDER PAUL,
KOUWENHOVEN COEN,
BURK WILLIAM J.
Publication year - 2009
Publication title -
scandinavian journal of psychology
Language(s) - English
Resource type - Journals
SCImago Journal Rank - 0.743
H-Index - 72
eISSN - 1467-9450
pISSN - 0036-5564
DOI - 10.1111/j.1467-9450.2008.00691.x
Subject(s) - psychology , belongingness , preference , school climate , classroom climate , social psychology , goal orientation , goal setting , cross cultural , developmental psychology , mathematics education , economics , microeconomics , sociology , anthropology
Goal preferences indicate intentions to achieve or avoid particular states. We examined whether Curacaoan and Dutch students differ in goal preferences related to school and whether goal preferences are associated with students’ evaluation of the classroom climate. Measurement invariance of the instruments was also tested between samples. Participants attended vocational high schools in Curacao ( N = 276) or in the Netherlands ( N = 283). Both the classroom climate and goal preferences differed between the samples. In the Netherlands the preference for individuality, belongingness, and recognition was stronger, whereas in Curacao mastery, satisfaction, self‐determination, and material gain were more frequently endorsed. The two variables were modestly correlated. Schools do have a globalizing effect on students’ school experiences and hardly adapt to goal preferences. The latter seem to be affected by non‐school related cultural factors.