Approaches To Learning And Age In Predicting College Students’ Academic Achievement

Abstract

The aim of this study is to determine whether the approaches to learning and age are significantly correlated to grade point average (GPA) in early childhood education students. In addition, another purpose of this study is to determine whether approaches to learning and age predicted students’ GPAs in the Early Childhood Education Department.  The sampling of the study consists of 166 students in total (158 female and 8 male; 86 junior and 80 senior) who studied at Georgia Southern University in the United States of America College of Education, Teaching and Learning Department’s Early Childhood Education program. The research model is a prediction study. The data in this study was collected using the Revised Two-Factor Study Process Questionnaire (R-SPQ-2F) and a personal information form. The findings were as follow: there was a positive relationship between students’ GPAs and the deep approach. There was a negative relationship between GPAs and the surface approach. There was no significant relationship between GPAs and approaches to the total score of learning. While there were no significant relationships between students’ ages and deep motivation and surface motivation strategies, an association was found between age and approaches to total scores of learning total . The approaches to total score of learning were not significant predictors of GPA.