Prediction of academic achievement based on learning strategies and outcome expectations among medical students

BACKGROUND: One of the most important indicators of the effectiveness of teaching can be the academic achievement of learners, which can be influenced by different factors such as learning methods and individual motivations. The purpose of this study was to determine the ability of predicting academic achievement based on learning motivation strategies and outcome expectations based on a theoretical model. METHODS: This descriptive-analytic study was conducted with the participation of 380 male and female students of nine faculties of medical sciences of Shahid Beheshti University of Tehran. Multi-stage sampling along with the questionnaire of motivational strategies for learning and student outcome expectation scale were used for data collection. The college grade point average (CGPA) of students’ past grades was considered as the academic performance variable. Data analysis was performed using Structural Equation Modeling (SEM) in AMOS software. RESULTS: The mean score of the structure of learning strategies, motivational strategies, outcome expectations, and students’ GPA did not show significant statistical differences in terms of gender, marital status, residence location, field of study, and educational level. There was a direct and significant relationship between the motivational strategies’ structures (R = 0.193, p < 0.001) as well as learning strategies (R = 0.243, p < 0.001) and the CGPA, while there was no relationship between outcome expectations and CGPA. Path analysis revealed that self-regulating learning strategies and motivational strategies can predict the academic achievement of these students. CONCLUSIONS: Considering the importance of active and independent learning among medical students, it is necessary for lecturers to use interactive and student-oriented patterns of teaching. Also, students should become familiar with self-regulating learning skills to better understand the information they receive. ELECTRONIC SUPPLEMENTARY MATERIAL: The online version of this article (10.1186/s12909-019-1527-9) contains supplementary material, which is available to authorized users.