Optimistic and Defensive-Pessimist Students: Differences in their Academic Motivation and Learning Strategies

2014 ◽  
Vol 17 ◽  
Author(s):  
José Manuel Suárez Riveiro

AbstractIn addition to cognitive and behavioral strategies, students can also use affective-motivational strategies to facilitate their learning process. In this way, the strategies of defensive-pessimism and generation of positive expectations have been widely related to conceptual models of pessimism-optimism. The aim of this study was to describe the use of these strategies in 1753 secondary school students, and to study the motivational and strategic characteristics which differentiated between the student typologies identified as a result of their use. The results indicated a higher use of the generation of positive expectations strategy (optimism) (M = 3.40, SD = .78) than the use of the defensive pessimism strategy (M = 3.00, SD = .78); a positive and significant correlation between the two strategies (r = .372, p = .001); their relationship with adequate academic motivation and with the use of learning strategies. Furthermore, four student typologies were identified based on the use of both strategies. Lastly, we propose a new approach for future work in this line of research.

Author(s):  
Harjit Kaur Gill

The objectives of the study were: (i) to study the learning strategies of Secondary school students, (ii) to study gender differences in the learning strategies of secondary school students (iii) to study the relationship between learning strategies and academic achievement of secondary school students.1200 secondary school students of Punjab were administered Motivational Strategies for Learning Questionnaire (Pintrich et al, 1991) The results show that significant differences have not been found between high and low achievers as well as between male and female school students on the rehearsal, elaboration, organization, critical thinking and meta-cognitive of self-regulation of learning strategies. Even the interaction effect of gender and academic achievement was not found significant on these dimensions except the last one i.e. meta-cognitive self-regulation dimension.


2018 ◽  
Vol 12 ◽  
pp. 53-68
Author(s):  
Mile JOVANOV ◽  
Marija MIHOVA ◽  
Bojan KOSTADINOV ◽  
Emil STANKOV

There are several International Olympiads for secondary school students (for example, mathematics, physics, chemistry, biology and informatics). These Olympiads are not just a science competition, but a means to care for talent in the particular science. The goal of this paper is to identify the necessary topics important for good results at these international contests, and to compare the contest systems for the countries in South Eastern Europe, in the field of Informatics (Computer Science), as a region that is one of the prominent world regions in the context of high results in the international competitions. Here, we provide comparison through detailed analysis of several countries, and further we present a new approach that may be used to compare the achievements of the countries based on the results that students achieved at these competitions. Finally, we present an application of this approach on the results of some of the discussed countries compared to Macedonia. We strongly believe that the paper will provide a valuable content and approach for the entities involved in the organization of the contests, to measure their results compared to other countries, to use the information for improvement, and to use their achievements to raise awareness among the government institutions and companies in order to get support from them.


2021 ◽  
Vol ahead-of-print (ahead-of-print) ◽  
Author(s):  
Monowar Mahmood ◽  
Yuliya Frolova ◽  
Bhumika Gupta

PurposePersonality traits are assumed to influence cognitive processes as well as academic motivation and learning approaches of the students. Based on these assumptions, the present study investigates the association of HEXACO personality traits with academic motivation as well as influence of those traits on students' learning approaches in educational contexts.Design/methodology/approachSelf-reported measures of personality orientation, academic motivation and learning approaches were obtained from 404 respondents in a classroom environment. The SPSS 20 software was used to conduct the correlations and the hierarchical regression analyses. The Eviews 10 software was used to develop the structural equation model to find the inter-relations among the study variables.FindingsThe findings reveal the influence of personality traits on academic motivation and learning approaches of the students. Among different personality traits, consciousness appeared to have highly positive impact on deep learning and intrinsic motivation of the studies. Neuroticism appeared to have most negative impact related to surface learning and amotivation of the learning contents.Research limitations/implicationsThe findings validates the existence of HEXACO personality traits among the students in central Asian context. It future reiterated individual differences in learning strategies and learning motivation among the learners. The results may help academics and policy makers take appropriate measures to increase academic motivation and select appropriate learning approaches.Originality/valueThis is one of the pioneer studies to investigate the relationship between HEXACO personality traits, learning strategies and academic motivation. Validation of the HEXACO framework will help to understand students' personality in a more detailed and elaborative way and will contribute to the existing literature on personality and learning outcomes.


Author(s):  
J. N. Baliya ◽  
Shivani Sharma

The purpose of this research was to study the impact of collaborative learning strategies on social maturity and its various dimensions viz. personal adequacy, interpersonal adequacy, and social adequacy, of secondary school students. The study was quasiexperimental and used matched pairs pre-test post-test research design. A Higher Secondary School in Educational Zone Hiranagar of District Kathua was chosen for the intervention. The study was conducted on sixty-six students of two sections of class 9th. Two sections were randomly assigned to collaborative and traditional learning conditions. Four methods of collaborative learning viz. Think-Pair-Share, Numbered Heads Together, Jigsaw, and Fish-Bowl were used for a period of over five weeks. The results were analyzed using mean, standard deviation and a critical ratio (CR). The results of the study showed that this approach was successful in increasing personal adequacy, interpersonal adequacy, social adequacy and overall social maturity of secondary school students.


Author(s):  
José Manuel Suárez ◽  
Ana Patricia Fernández ◽  
Ángela Zamora

Introduction. The debate over the education of immigrant pupils relative to native Spanish students is currently a hot topic, but very little research has been undertaken in this area in Spain. The objective of this study was to detect certain possible differences in motivation and strategies between immigrant and Spanish pupils, and also between boys and girls.Method. A sample of 436 secondary school pupils was used. The Motivated Strategies for Learning Questionnaire (MSLQ) was used as a basis, but was adapted in the shape of the elimination of the goal sub-scales (intrinsic and extrinsic), which were replaced by the Goal Orientation Scale of Skaalvik. Various Student’s t-tests were carried out to determine whether or not there were statistically significant differences between the independent samples studied, concretely in respect of nationality of origin and of gender. In interpreting results, account was also taken of the effect of the size of sample. Moreover, MANOVA analyses were also used to check whether there were any interactions between the nationality of origin and gender in respect of the variables studied.Results. In general, it was noteworthy that the main differences found were linked to the gender of pupils, much more than their nationality of origin. Hence, statistically significant differences were found in a total of twelve variables by gender and only three by nationality. Moreover, differences encountered lay mostly in the area of learning strategies rather than in academic motivation and self-motivation.Discussion and conclusion. As a general conclusion for this study, it may be emphasized that the main differences recorded were in respect of gender, much more than with regard to the nationality of origin. More specific studies would be desirable so as to develop further this line of investigation, which is novel in a Spanish context.


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