The predictive power of learning strategies and critical thinking tendencies on high school students' academic achievement

A person's learning strategy is one of the essential factors that determine the quality of a learning outcome. On the one hand, learning strategy of students in learning process directly affects their academic achievement level according to many educators. On the other hand, critical thinking, as an ability to question and construct the information, is considered as an important part of the academic achievement. Therefore, learning strategies and critical thinking disposition levels of high school students were measured and predictive power of these two variables on academic achievement together was examined. In this research, two validity and reliability scales were applied to the students who are studying at various grade levels in the five different types of high schools. The students' first semester grades were used as academic achievement indicator. The multiple lineer regression analysis technique was applied to assess the predictive power of learning strategies and critical thinking dispositions on academic achievement. Variables such as parental education level, school type and gender variables were also analyzed.Simple correlation, t-test, and ANOVA were used in the study. According to the results; learning strategies and critical thinking predictive power in academic success is 15%. A low level (r =, 19) relationship was found between learning strategies and critical thinking. In terms of gender factor there was a significant difference in favor of females in learning strategies of elaboration, affective and rehearsal. There was no significant difference between 9th, 10th and 11th grade students in terms of critical thinking. Finally, a significant and positive correlation was found between parental education level and students' critical thinking level and learning strategies.