Abstract:

Objective:
To analyse the correlation between the amount of learning strategies used and motivation and academic goals of second year physiotherapy at University of Vigo.

Method:
Cross-sectional descriptive study. The Spanish versions of the Skaalvik goals questionnaire (SGQ) (1997) and the Motivated Strategies for Learning Questionnaire (MSLQ) by Pintrich et al. (1991) have been used. The study has been carried out at the beginning of the first semester of the academic course 2014-2015, and 48 second year physiotherapy students’ have participated in it. The average age was 20.28 ± 2.26 years.

Results:
56.25% of the participants were women. In relation to the MSLQ, significant positive correlation was observed between the scores achieved in the motivation and learning strategies scales (p<0.01). Regarding the SGQ, positive correlation was observed only between self-defeating goals (SDG) and work avoidance goals (WAG) scales (p<0.05). No significant correlation was observed between motivation or learning strategies scales’ scores and any of the scores achieved in the scales of the MSLQ: task goals (TG), self-enhancing goals (SEG), self-defeating goals (SDG), and work avoidance goals (WAG).

Conclusions:
As could be expected, on one hand, those second year physiotherapy students at University of Vigo who appear to score high in motivation also do in learning strategies; and, on the other hand, those who score high in SDG also do in WAG. However, there did not appear to be a direct correlation between scores achieved in learning strategies or motivation and in TG and SEG or an inverse correlation between learning strategies or motivation and SDG and WAG. The results observed seem to require more studies to confirm data obtained.

Keywords:

Academic Goals, Learning Strategies, Higher Education, Physiotherapy.