Relationship between critical thinking, self-regulatory strategies, and goal achievement in nursing students of Islamic Azad University, Shahroud Branch

Understanding the factors affecting the development of self-regulatory learning and goal orientation in students is important, because of their main role in the teaching and learning process. Critical thinking is one of the constructs related to students’ self-regulatory learning and goal orientation. The purpose of this study was to investigate the relationship between critical thinking with goal orientation and self-regulatory learning in nursing students of Islamic Azad University, Shahroud Branch. A descriptive-correlational study with 104 undergraduate nursing students was conducted. A stratified random sampling method was used to choose the students. Data was gathered using the Student Achievement Goal Orientation Questionnaire by Midgely et al. (1998), Motivated Strategies for Learning Questionnaire by Pintrich and De Groot (1990), and Critical Thinking Skills Questionnaire, California (Form B). The mean of students’ goal achievement was 92±19.4, self-regulated learning was 103.5±14.7, and critical thinking was 9.2±2.7. A significant positive correlation was reported between goal achievement and self-regulatory learning (P<0.01), but there was no significant correlation between critical thinking with self-regulatory learning and goal achievement. The analysis component of critical thinking was correlated with the cognitive component of being self-regulatory (P<0.01). Three variables including mastery goal orientation, approach-performance goal orientation, and the analysis of critical thinking were 39.9% effective in predicting self-regulatory learning (P=0.000). In the regression analysis, it was shown that students with higher mastery goal orientation and more ability to analysis have better self-regulatory strategies. While critical thinking is one of the effective components of cognitive processes in students. In this respect, the higher level of critical thinking in students and their use of deep processing strategies in their own learning, may improve their goal orientation and their ability to choose more effective self-regulatory strategies. If the aim of the nursing profession is to train nurses who are able to control their own purposes and be self-directed, the mission of nursing schools must be to promote and teach critical thinking to students. Furthermore, nurse instructors must change their traditional method of teaching and evaluation of learning outcomes.