Strategies to Improve Students’ Educational Achievement Motivation at Guilan University of Medical Sciences

Introduction: In view of the fact that motivation is linked directly to the learning process and educational achievement, this study endeavored to identify strategies to improve students’ educational achievement motivation at Guilan University of Medical Sciences. Methods: To conduct this descriptive-analytical study, 368 students from Guilan University of Medical Sciences were selected using simple random sampling from 2013-2014. All of the Guilan University of Medical Sciences’ students met the general eligibility criteria except guest students. The questionnaire included five domains of economic, socio-cultural, educational, geo-regional, and personality factors in educational achievement motivation. Through using descriptive and inferential statistics (Kolmogorov-Smirnov, Mann-Whitney U and Kruskal-Wallis tests), the compiled data were analyzed at the significance level of 0.05. Results: Data analysis revealed that socio-cultural factors have the maximum score (64.14 ± 9.92) and geo-regional factors have the minimum score (19.01±3.63) on the participants’ educational achievement motivation. What is more, a significant difference was revealed between educational field and educational effective factors as well as educational level and educational effective factors (p<0.011, p<0.004, respectively). Conclusion: Given that the socio-cultural factors had the maximum score on the students’ educational achievement motivation, it is recommended that university officials take these factors into account, and attempt to plan to provide appropriate strategies to enhance their students’ motivation, specifically their educational achievement motivation.