Achievement Goal Orientation and Curricular Engagement in Veterinary Students

Achievement goal orientation (AGO) defines student motivation and whether they are driven by learning and competence (mastery orientation) or performance markers, such as grades (performance orientation). Competency-based veterinary education aligns with a mastery orientation, particularly when students are assessed on the basis of achieving competence, rather than using grades. This study uses a mixed-methods approach to report the AGO of veterinary students and evaluate their responses to educational challenges, describe how they maintain motivation, and explore their perceptions of grades using AGO as a theoretical framework. Most students are more strongly mastery oriented but also typically have moderate to strong performance goal orientation. Focus group analysis shows evidence of both orientations in students' behaviors, regardless of their predominant orientation, and these behaviors are, at times, conflicting. Curricular overload is viewed as a significant educational challenge, exacerbating performance avoidance behaviors (e.g., procrastination). Students profess to enjoy educational challenge but are adept at constructing narratives around why some challenges are not considered fair or legitimate, which may suggest false mastery mind-set. They also tend to state preferences for pass/fail grading but have complex feelings about grades, and some desire objective feedback on performance relative to peers. In the absence of objective feedback, students leverage a variety of methods (both mastery- and performance-oriented) to maintain motivation and achieve comparisons with peers. Withdrawal of objective measures such as grades, grade point average, and class rank would need to be carefully coupled with sufficient feedback and support for students who may rely on these as motivators.