Goal Modification, Global-Analytical Learning Styles, and Achievement in Technical Writing

Abstract

This study examined the possibility of developing different goals, mastery or competitive, on students and consequently affecting their learning styles. In the 3-week experiment period, a pretest-posttest design was used to the two intact college English classes. The outcomes revealed that the goals of the students could be modified in different manners. But the styles of learning did not determine the effects of the goal modifications. The research also examined which goal is the indicator of the achievement in English. The result proved that the competitive goal modification determines the English achievement; while the analytic learners’ mastery and competitive goal modification predict their achievement in English. The mastery goal modification of the global learners does not predict the English achievement but the competitive goal modification does. It is recommended that more investigations on the characteristics of the global learners be undertaken to find the real reasons of what made it non-predictor of the English achievement.  Furthermore, more goal modifications have to be explored.

Keywords: goals, goal modification, learning styles, achievement1