Development and Validation of a self-directed learning training package and determining its effectiveness on academic enthusiasm and academic vitality in students

The aim of this study was to develop and validation of a self-directed learning training package and to determine its effectiveness on academic enthusiasm and academic vitality. The present study is of combination type in the form of an exploratory design (at first the qualitative method and then the quantitative method(. To identify the components of self-direction in this research, the qualitative method of content analysis has been used. Content analysis is a method for understanding the analysis and reporting of current patterns in qualitative data.The method used in the quantitative part of the reaserch is semi-experimental with pre-test,post-test,3-month follow-up and the control group. Population included all male freshman students of Esfahan farhangian university of Shahid Bahonar in the academic year of 1395-1396, (N= 275) in different fields. Of these, 36 volunteered to participate in the training course on announced call, which were assigned into two groups of experimental and control (18 in each groups) by simple random sampling method. The research instruments comprised of an educational package based on self-directed learning components, Hossein Chari and Dehghanizadeh's (1391) Academic Vitality Questionnaire and Fredericks et al.'s (2007) Academic Enthusiasm Questionnaire. To analyze the data, Multivariate analysis of covariance was utilized and the results showed that the difference between the mean scores in all variables of the study including academic enthusiasm and its dimensions and academic vitality in the experimental and control groups in the post-test and follow-up stages was significant. (P <0.001). The effect size of the educational package on increasing academic enthusiasm was 54.5% and 44.4%in the post -test and follow-up respectively. Also, the effect of this package on increasing academic enthusiasm in the post-test was equal to 48.3% and in the follow-up was equal to 33%.