The Development and Validation of the Goal Orientation and Learning Strategies Survey (Goals-S)

This article outlines the construction and validation of the Goal Orientation and Learning Strategies Survey (GOALS-S). This 84-item survey was designed to measure students’ motivational goal orientations and their cognitive and metacognitive strategies. Results of first-order confirmatory factor analyses (CFAs) supported the factorial validity of the GOALS-S scales measuring students’ goals and strategies (with goodness-of-fit indices in post-hoc models ranging from .908 to .981). In addition, higher order CFAs (HCFAs) support hierarchical structure of the GOALS-S scales (with goodness-of-fit indices ranging from .904 to .980). Finally, tests of invariance supported the factorial stability of the GOALS-S scales across gender groups (with goodness-of-fit indices ranging from .901 to .981).