Study of Meta-Cognitive Beliefs and Learning Methods and Their Relationship with Exam Anxiety in High School Students Bandar Abbas City, 2014

Background Nowadays, one of the principal difficulties faced by educational systems worldwide is anxiety, a mental problem, which is evidently difficult to be endured by many students and leads to various types of mental and physical disorders or reduction of educational efficiency, and has gained attention of sociologists for its consequent psychological, social, and economical impacts. Objectives The current study aimed at predicting exam anxiety based on meta-cognitive beliefs and learning methods among high school students of Bandar Abbas. Methods The study population included 351 students (197 males and 154 females), who were selected randomly by the cluster approach and answered the research tools including Meta-Cognitive Beliefs Questionnaires (MCQ-30), Learning methods questionnaires of Marton and Saljoo (1996) and also test anxiety questionnaire of Alpert and Haber (1960). The study plan was correlative-descriptive. Pearson simple correlation coefficient, multi variable regression, and multi variable variance analysis were used to analyze the obtained data. Results The study results indicated that there was a positive significant relationship between meta-cognitive beliefs and exam anxiety, a negative significant relationship between profound learning and learning methods and exam anxiety, and a positive significant relationship between smattering learning method and exam anxiety. The regression exam results also revealed that meta-cognitive beliefs and smattering learning methods could positively predict and determine exam anxiety in students. A significant relationship was observed between meta-cognitive beliefs in females and males, and female students showed greater intention and interest toward meta-cognitive beliefs than males, however, no significant difference was observed between learning methods and exam anxiety in females and males. Conclusions It was concluded from the study results that profound learning methods lead to the reduction of exam anxiety, and smattering learning methods and meta-cognitive beliefs lead to increased exam anxiety among students.