Investigating the Relationship between Learning Approaches and Academic Achievement among the Students of Shahroud University of Medical Sciences

Background: The study approaches are among the effective factors in comprehensive academic achievement and performance. The aim of study was to identify the learning approaches of nursing and midwifery students of Shahroud university of medical sciences and its connection to their academic achievement. Methods: This study is a descriptive - cross-sectional one which was conducted on 234 nursing and midwifery students of Shahroud university of medical sciences during the educational year of 2010-11. Data were collected by Approached and Study Skills Inventory for Students (ASSIS) and also demographic information collection form. To determine the students’ academic achievement, their averages were used. To analyze the data, descriptive test and Chi-square test as well as the one-way ANOVA were used by SPSS version 16. Results: The results showed that more than 60% of students were using the in-depth approach. There was a significant relationship between the semester average among the nursing students and learning approaches (p value=0.032), while no significant relationship was observed between the semester average among the midwifery students and learning approaches (p value=0.270). Conclusions: Regarding the study results, it seems that the manner of application of teaching techniques and methods, the environmental conditions of student, assessment method and motivation among the students are the probable causes of the results. To encourage the student to use the deep learning approach, it is needed to teach the systematic teaching methods to instructors and promote the teaching qualitatively.