The purpose of this study was to investigate relations between goal orientations, information processing strategies and development of conceptual knowledge of pre-vocational secondary education students (n=719; 14 schools). Student preferences for certain types of goals and information processing strategies were examined using questionnaires. Conceptual knowledge was investigated by having students create concept maps before and after a learning project. Structural and hierarchical analyses show that student preferences for mastery and performance goals positively affected their preferences for the use of deep information processing strategies. Use of surface information processing strategies negatively affected the development of conceptual knowledge.