Analyzing the Structural Relationships Between Students' Perception of the Curriculum and their Approach to Learning and Studying

The purpose of this study was to investigate the relationship between undergraduate students' perceptions of the curriculum and their approach to learning and studying. The statistical population included undergraduate students of Shahid Bahonar University of Kerman. The statistical sample consisted of 365 students who were selected by stratified sampling. To collect data, two questionnaires namely "Student Study Approaches and Skills (short version)" and "Course Experience Questionnaire" were used. Confirmatory factor analysis was utilized to evaluate the validity of the instruments and the results showed that both instruments had appropriate structural validity. The reliability of each instrument was estimated to be 0.85 and 0.83, respectively. Structural equation modeling was used to investigate the structural relationships via using Amos software. The results showed that there was a positive and significant relationship between the perception of clear goals and standards with a surface approach to learning. Also, there was a positive and meaningful relationship between the perception of clear goals and standards and the strategic approach to learning. In addition, the relationship between the perceptions of appropriate workload with the surface approach to learning was positive and meaningful, and also a positive and significant relationship was seen between the deep approach and the strategic approach to learning.