Undergraduates’ Achievement Goal Orientations, Academic Self-Efficacy and Hope as the Predictors of Their Learning Approaches

Makbule Kali-Soyer,Berke Kirikkanat

doi:10.12973/eu-jer.8.1.99

Abstract

<p style="text-align:justify">The aim of the present study was to figure out whether university students’ learning approaches were shaped via their achievement goal orientations, academic self-efficacy and hope or not. The other objective was to examine if these psychological constructs varied in accordance with the demographic variables including gender, age and class level. 332 undergraduates from two different universities who were in the year of junior and senior participated in the study. The Achievement Goal Orientations Scale, the Academic Self-Efficacy Scale, the Dispositional Hope Scale and the Demographic Form were utilized to reveal the predictive power of these constructs on their learning attitudes measured by the Revised Two-Factor Study Process Questionnaire. Multiple linear regression analysis indicated that learning goal orientation was a pivotal predictor of both deep and surface approach to learning. Academic self-efficacy and hope were the crucial precursors of deep approach while performance-avoidance goal inclination was a considerable predictor of surface approach. Independent samples t-test analysis displayed that the female undergraduates were superior to the male ones in terms of the learning goal tendency. And the students (20 to 22 aged) demonstrated higher scores on the same variable than the other ones (23 to 25 aged). On the basis of class level, there were no significant differences in the scores of achievement goal orientations, academic self-efficacy, hope and learning approaches. The results pointed out the fact that such concepts pertinent to an undergraduate’s academic performance could be viewed as distinctive features engendering different learning attitudes toward scholastic training.</p>

Highlights

Higher education, a complex structure of studying, learning and teaching level, contains lots of academic and amicable struggles students should handle with
The other objective was to examine if these psychological constructs varied in accordance with the demographic variables including gender, age and class level. 332 undergraduates from two different universities who were in the year of junior and senior participated in the study
On the basis of class level, there were no significant differences in the scores of achievement goal orientations, academic self-efficacy, hope and learning approaches

Summary

Introduction

A complex structure of studying, learning and teaching level, contains lots of academic and amicable struggles students should handle with. The burden from which university education demands makes students figure out the effective learning strategies for their academic survival. These learning approaches derive from the interaction between the student and the material that should be learned (Ramsden, 2003). How a student deals with the learning material determines his potential academic pathway, constituting his educational improvement during his training. For Marton and Säljo (1976), students produce divergent academic outcomes emanating from the discrepancies in coping with the learning task Based on their distinctive objectives, they differ in emphasizing either the comprehension of the task or the clues of passing it. Students acquiring a deep learning approach aim to understand the material while the students with a surface approach target to reproduce the material (Biggs, 2001)

Objectives

Results

Conclusion