Strategic-motivational profile and academic achievement in primary school students

Abstract

Among a multitude of variables that are involved in self-regulated learning and that define the student’s profile, we find learning strategies and academic motivation. The aim of this study was to analyze relationships between learning strategies, attitude toward study, self-concept, and academic achievement. A total of 519 students from upper primary education in Cantabria (Spain) were participants in this cross-sectional study, which used non-experimental, descriptive, correlational methodology. The results confirmed a tendency for greater use of learning strategies, along with optimal motivation towards schoolwork, to be positively related to overall academic achievement. Moreover, low-medium-high levels of learning strategy use and of academic motivation were differentially associated with academic achievement. This study has confirmed that complementary learning strategies such as group work or extracurricular activities, as well as academic self-concept, are predictive of achievement in the subjects considered, as well as of academic achievement in general. Educational contexts that take into account learning strategies and academic motivation are called for, both as a means and as an end in themselves, in order to achieve meaningful, practical and functional learning that leads to higher academic achievement.