Academic Motivation and Approaches to Learning in Predicting College Students' Academic Achievement: Findings from Turkish and US Samples.

Abstract

The aim of this study is to determine if approaches to learning and academic motivation together predict grade point averages (GPAs) of students who study at Primary School Education and Preschool Education in Turkey and of students who study at Early Childhood Education in the US. The first group of participants included 166 third- and fourth-year students at Georgia Southern University’s Early Childhood Education Department during the 2014 spring semester. The second group of participants included 455 third- and fourth-year students who study at Canakkale 18 Mart University’s Primary School Education and Preschool Education Departments during the 2013 spring semester. It was found that approaches to learning and academic motivation together did not predict GPA of students who studied in Turkey or the US.