title: Identifying achievement goals and their relationship to academic achievement in undergraduate pharmacy students.
abstract: OBJECTIVE
  To compare the achievement goal orientations of first-year with those of third-year undergraduate Australian pharmacy students and to examine the relationship of goal orientations to academic achievement.
  
  
  METHODS
  The Achievement Goal Questionnaire was administered to first-year and third-year students during class time. Students' grades were obtained from course coordinators.
  
  
  RESULTS
  More first-year students adopted performance-approach and mastery-approach goals than did third-year students. Performance-approach goals were positively correlated with academic achievement in the first year. Chinese Australian students scored the highest in adopting performance-approach goals. Vietnamese Australian students adopted mastery-avoidance goals more than other ethnicities. First-year students were more strongly performance approach goal-oriented than third-year students.
  
  
  CONCLUSIONS
  Adopting performance-approach goals was positively correlated with academic achievement, while adopting avoidance goals was not. Ethnicity has an effect on the adoption of achievement goals and academic achievement.
authors.affiliation: Faculty of Pharmacy, The University of Sydney, Sydney, New South Wales, Australia.
authors.forename: Saleh
authors.initials: S
authors.lastname: Alrakaf
authors.affiliation: Faculty of Pharmacy, The University of Sydney, Sydney, New South Wales, Australia.
authors.forename: Erica
authors.initials: E
authors.lastname: Sainsbury
authors.affiliation: Aftercare, Sydney, New South Wales, Australia.
authors.forename: Grenville
authors.initials: G
authors.lastname: Rose
authors.affiliation: Faculty of Pharmacy, The University of Sydney, Sydney, New South Wales, Australia.
authors.forename: Lorraine
authors.initials: L
authors.lastname: Smith
mesh_terms: D000293:Adolescent; D001315:Australia / Q000208:ethnology; D004512:Education, Pharmacy / Q000379:methods / Q000592:standards*; D004521:Educational Measurement / Q000592:standards*; D004522:Educational Status; D005006:Ethnicity / Q000208:ethnology*; D005260:Female; D006040:Goals; D006801:Humans; D008297:Male; D013339:Students, Pharmacy; D011795:Surveys and Questionnaires / Q000592:standards; D055815:Young Adult
keywords: academic achievement; achievement goal questionnaire; achievement goals; ethnicity