Comparison of motivational strategies, learning resource management strategies and learning approaches in students of smart and normal schools

Learning strategies and approaches are those which affect the quality of learning and the students use these strategies during learning to achieve their goals. The aim of this study was comparing the motivational strategies, learning resource management strategies and learning approaches in students of smart and normal schools. It was a causal-comparative study. The research population included all 7th and 8th grade female students of smart and normal high school of Yazd city in the academic year of 2015-2016. The sample consisted of 339 students (172 smart school students and 167 students of normal schools) that were selected using cluster sampling method. In order to measure the variables, Questionnaires of motivational strategies for learning (Pintrich and DeGroot, 1990) and learning approaches (Entwistle and Tait, 2000) were used. The results revealed that there were significant differences among the components of motivational strategies in students of smart and normal schools. Also, there were significant differences in learning resource management strategies and its components among the smart and normal school students. In addition, there were significant differences in learning approaches between normal and smart school students.