Considering motivation, goals, and mastery orientation in dance technique

Goals motivate students to engage in learning-related activities, but not all goals are created equal. Students’ goals can be parsed into two types: mastery and performance. Mastery-oriented students are primarily concerned with learning as an end in itself. Performance-oriented students tend to be more concerned with how they compare to others. Empirical studies have repeatedly confirmed that students’ individual goal orientations are likely to mirror the orientation their teacher stresses, the goal structure of their class. Given the consistent findings regarding the positive outcomes associated with students’ mastery goals, a mastery goal structure may provide a more supportive motivational context for all students. This relationship is well established in many educational contexts but has not received attention in dance. The relevant question is: What do mastery goal structures look like in dance? This article begins to address this question through the exploration of a single teacher’s pedagogical practice.