Academic Performance Differences of the Students in the Light of Active Learning and Motivational Beliefs

Educational performance (educational failure or achievement) is affected by different biological, psychological, and social factors. Various factors including goal, motivation, and learning can ensure high performance of students. It is true that teaching and learning methods have been considerably enhanced along with the developments in education and educational psychology. What was considered important in the past, is not of importance now. Instead some other issues like motivation, attitude, learning, and modern teaching methods are considered as effective and important factors in education.At least since 1980s, several studies have been conducted to investigate the effect of cognitive and motivational factors acting interactively and jointly on the achievement and learning ability of students (Linnenbrink & Pintrich, 2002). Teaching and organizing of knowledge by activating students has drawn attention from 200 years ago. Experts believe that teachers should not teach the contents to their students, rather they should teach them how to learn the contents (Palmer, 2003).The role and importance of active learning in a classroom are essential issues that have attracted the attention of many researchers. This type of learning makes students become mentally involved in learning, increases their learning ability, and improves their motivation and educational performance. According to the self-regulated learning theory introduced by Pintrich and De Groot (1990), self-efficacy (expectancy), intrinsic evaluation (values), and text anxiety (affection) are considered as motivational beliefs, and student’s cognitive and meta-cognitive strategies as well as their management and control of efforts as the self-regulated learning strategies. According to this theory, affective (motivational) components, and cognitive, and meta-cognitive factors work jointly as decisive factors in the student's learning performance.Considering the importance of active learning and motivational beliefs in educational performance, we are required to study the differences in educational performance of these two variables.Research Question: Does the student's educational performance differ significantly based on their profiles of active learning and motivational beliefs? The research method used in this study is of descriptive – comparative type. The statistical population consisted of all the high school students of the city of Tehran. The sample used in the study included 379 students (184 boys and 195 girls) selected through multistage random sampling. To assess the active learning application and the motivational values, a researcher-made questionnaire and the Motivated Strategies for Learning Questionnaire (MSLQ) were used respectively. To assess the educational performance of the students, the semester GPA of the students was used in the form of self-reporting. The results confirmed the reliability and validity of the scores of active learning application and motivational beliefs. The Cronbach’s alpha coefficient was 0.88 and 0.80 for learning application questionnaire and motivational beliefs respectively. To analyze the data, cluster analysis, discriminant function, and t-test were employed. The students were classified into two distinct clusters. The average scores of the active learning and motivational beliefs variables of the first cluster were higher than those of the second cluster.The first cluster was called high motivational learning cluster and the second one low motivational learning cluster. After clustering the members of the sample, discriminant function analysis was employed to ensure the accuracy of clustering. The results of this analysis indicated that this classification was done accurately. Analysis of the data through t-test in the last phase indicated that the two high and low motivational learning groups were different in terms of their educational performance due to their motivational beliefs and active learning components. The educational performance of the high motivational learning cluster was significantly better than that of the low motivational learning cluster. The results of this study are in line with those of studies such as Ahmadi (2011), and Pintrich (2003) that focused on personal differences using assignment value, control beliefs, expectancy of success, and creation of two motivational clusters. In many research findings on the motivational profiles, the variables such as the high value of the high self-efficacy assignments and high mastery goals are the best predictors of educational processes, and consequences such as educational performance and continuation of cognitive processes (Rattle et al, 2007).The results of the studies conducted by Izadifar and Ashtiani (2009) as well as Deniska et al. (2010) show that the application of modern teaching methods accompanied by active learning improves the educational performance of the students and leads to higher educational achievement. The findings of these studies are consistent with those of the present research in which the average score for all the components of active learning in the high motivational learning cluster with higher educational performance was higher than that of the low motivational learning cluster. The finding of this research can be explained by referring to the constructivist theory which states that students build their knowledge and meaning actively using their experiences. When students build their learned knowledge actively, teaching will be more exact and meaningful, and such knowledge becomes more durable and meaningful for the students and it can be employed in new situations more conveniently. This improves educational performance (Fetsco & McClaire, 2005).In general, the findings of this study could specifically be utilized by the teachers, and teacher training students. They may benefit from the findings in terms of employing active teaching methods and encouraging students to apply active learning for improving their motivational beliefs and educational performance. Moreover, educational experts are expected to provide better conditions and educational facilities so that teachers can benefit from such modern teaching methods in their classrooms.