A Proposed Model to Predict Academic Achievement: The Role of Critical Thinking and Self-regulated Learning Strategies

Introduction: It is important to identify the factors affecting academic achievement. This study investigated the role of critical thinking and self- regulated learning strategies in predicting academic achievement in the nursing students, in order to propose a predictive model. Methods: This descriptive-correlation study was conducted on 104 undergraduate nursing students of Islamic Azad University- Shahroud Branch, in 3rd, 4th and 7th semesters. They were selected out of 290 nursing students by stratified random sampling. Data gathering tools included two questionnaires : Motivated Strategies for Learning Questionnaire of Pintrich and De Groot (1990), and Critical Thinking Skills Questionnaire, California (Form B). Academic achievement of students was measured by grade point average (GPA) of previous semesters. Data were analyzed using Pearson correlation, multiple regressions, multivariate analysis of variance and analysis of covariance. Results: Mean of self-regulation learning scores was at the good level (103.5±14.7), grade point average of previous semesters (academic achievement scores) was 14.3±1.5 and critical thinking was at the low to moderate level (9.2±2.7). Analyses showed that three variables including self- regulated learning, critical thinking and high school GPA could predict 31.3% of variations in academic achievement of nursing students(p=0.000), but only coefficients of self- regulated learning and high school GPA were statistically significant. Critical thinking was not significantly responsible for any variance in the academic achievement scores. Conclusion: This study showed that high school GPA and self-regulatory learning strategies are effective in academic achievement of nursing students. To achieve professional development and training of self-directed nurses, efforts should be focused on identifying and helping students especially those who have low academic achievement.