Multidimensional profiles of learning orientations and school achievement: a person-oriented approach in middle-school students

Abstract

A person-oriented approach was applied to the study of early adolescents’ learning orientations to identify different profiles and their association with school achievement. A total of 244 middle-school students (male: 128; female: 116; M-age ± SD = 12.51 ± .93) completed a self-report questionnaire to explore cognitive, metacognitive, and affective dimensions of learning orientations. School achievements were collected in a range of school subjects. Cluster analyses and one-way MANOVA were carried out to verify the existence of profiles. Chi-square tests were used to test the association between profiles of learning orientations and school achievement. The results showed two profiles differently associated with school achievement: students “Dragged by the current” (Profile 1) showed low school achievement across school subjects, meanwhile students “At the helm” (Profile 2) reached excellent school achievement. In promoting middle-school students’ achievement, it is important for teachers to consider students’ profiles of learning orientations.

Moderators of the effect of entrepreneurship education on entrepreneurial action

“…A general consensus derived from SoLT suggests that different teaching methods work better for certain populations, with learning patterns as an important intervening factor (Vermunt and Donche, 2017). Moreover, researchers have shown learning patterns and their influence on academic performance to be highly context-dependent (Vettori et al. , 2021; Umapathy et al.…”

“…A general consensus derived from SoLT suggests that different teaching methods work better for certain populations, with learning patterns as an important intervening factor (Vermunt and Donche, 2017). Moreover, researchers have shown learning patterns and their influence on academic performance to be highly context-dependent (Vettori et al, 2021;Umapathy et al, 2020), which suggests the relevance of their analysis in the EE context. In fact, Rideout and Gray (2013) concluded that different EE interventions work better for certain populations, but this is just speculation and more quantitative research is needed to prove their claim.…”

“…Learning orientations and motivations represent the cognitive-motivational component in the students' learning process (Vermunt and Donche, 2017). In addition, different learning orientations and motivations influence not only students' learning activities and processing strategies but also the efficacy of different educational interventions (Vettori et al. , 2021; Vermunt and Donche, 2017).…”

“…Learning orientations represent the students' usage of knowledge (Soltani and Askarizadeh, 2021; Biggs, 1987) and are considered to range from a deep to a superficial usage of knowledge (Hailikari et al. , 2022; Vettori et al. , 2021).…”

“…According to the Scholarship of Learning and Training (SoLT), this claim cannot be upheld anymore as there are learning asymmetries among student entrepreneurs (Corbett, 2005). Aware of the importance of students' learning characteristics (Vettori et al. , 2021), in this paper the authors explore two boundary conditions: learning orientations and learning motivations, which, if taken together, describe the profile of EE participants and their predisposition to learn from educational interventions.…”