Understanding the relationships among students' goal orientations, self-efficacy, anxiety, and accelerated academic success in the redesign of developmental mathematics

The low success rates of increasing numbers of underprepared students taking developmental mathematics classes---often minority and economically disadvantaged---are challenging community colleges across the United States. These students, who must start in the lowest levels of precollege mathematics courses, are unlikely to pass the first course and earn a credential. Using a mastery goal orientation theoretical framework, a quantitative, survey research design was used to ascertain any correlations between students' goal orientations, self-efficacy, test anxiety, and success in a new model of learning. Survey data were used to answer 3 research questions: (a) the relationship between success and students' perceptions of self-efficacy, goal orientation, and beliefs about test anxiety; (b) the relationship between demographics and students' perceptions of self-efficacy, goal orientation, and beliefs about test anxiety; and (c) the degree to which students' perceptions and experience predict success. Approximately 500 new students in the course were invited; 36 participated. Spearman's rho, chi-square, and ANOVA were used to answer the research questions. Based on Spearman's rho correlations, there were statistically significant relationships between self-efficacy and success as well as between intrinsic goal orientation and success. However, the sample size limited the generalizability of the findings. Further, there were no significant predictors of success. The white paper developed from this project study is intended to guide the development and expansion of accelerated developmental mathematics to increase academic success, broaden career choices, and improve the long-term economic futures of disadvantaged students enrolling in college.