Basic Psychological Needs, Learning Strategies and Students' Academic Achievement

Subject Areas : Educational Science

Rasool Jannesar ¹

1 - MSc in Educational Psychology, Urmia University, Iran

Received: 2018-10-11 Accepted : 2020-09-18 Published : 2020-11-21

Keywords: Academic Achievement, Basic Psychological Needs, learning strategies, high school students,

Abstract :

One of the important criteria for assessing the level of success or failure of educational system is the students’ academic achievement; increasing the academic achievement and reducing the level of their academic failure are among the most important goals of this system. The aim of current research was to investigate the relationship between basic psychological needs (autonomy, competence and relatedness), learning strategies (deep and surface) and students' academic achievement in a form of casual model. 285 high school students in Salmas city were selected using stratified sampling method and answered to learning strategies and basic psychological needs questionnaires. Path analysis was use for data analysis. The findings revealed that tested model had sufficient fit and predicted 23% of changes of academic achievement, 14% deep learning strategies and 13% of variance of surface learning strategies. Deep learning strategies had positive and significant effect on academic achievement. But the effect of surface learning strategies on academic achievement was negative and significant. Need for autonomy and competence had positive and significant effect on Deep learning strategies. But the effect of need for relatedness on this variable wasn't significant. Also, the effect of need for relatedness on surface learning strategies was positive and significant. Research findings showed that both motivational (e.g. basic psychological needs) and cognitive variables (e.g. learning strategies) have important roles in prediction of students' academic achievement.