Buts de performance et de maîtrise et interactions sociales entre étudiants : la situation particulière du désaccord avec autrui

For many researchers (see Dweck, 1986; Nicholls, 1984), students can pursue two types of goals when carrying out a learning task: the mastery goal (desire to learn, to develop knowledge), and the performance goal (desire to show one’s own competence). The present paper presents an overview of the research about the achievement goals effects in the specific situation where a student is led to interact with another student whose answer is different from his/her own (the so-called “socio-cognitive conflict”, Doise & Mugny, 1984). As a whole, results show that the mastery goal favors epistemic regulation (a conflict regulation focused on the task, the understanding of the problem). Moreover, it renders conflict beneficial for learning. On the contrary, the performance goal favors relational regulation (a conflict regulation focused on assertion of self-competence) and renders conflict detrimental for learning.