Comparison of progress motivation, creativity and academic performance in gifted and normal students of Ilam city

Dissertation for Master's Degree in Psychology (M.A.)

Trend: General

Abstract

The purpose of this study was to compare the progress motivation, creativity and academic performance in gifted and normal students of Ilam city. The statistical population of the present study included all students of gifted and normal schools in Ilam city who were studying in the academic year 2013-2014. In order to carry out the current research, 140 students were selected by multi-stage cluster sampling method and they were provided with questionnaires of motivation for progress and creativity. After collecting information, the data were analyzed by SPSS software and independent groups t-test. The results showed that there is a significant difference between gifted and normal students in terms of achievement motivation, creativity and its components, and academic performance. Therefore, based on the results of the present research, it can be concluded that in the discussion of education and training and increasing the academic performance of students, the role of intelligence, creativity and the motivation to progress should be given special attention.

Key words: motivation to progress, creativity, academic performance, smart, student

Introduction

One of the factors influencing the progress of any society is the education and training system of that society. Therefore, since in every educational system, academic progress is considered as the most important indicator of the success of scientific and educational activities, the investigation of the factors affecting the academic progress of students is of special importance to the researchers of educational sciences and psychology. Research on academic achievement has mainly focused on the role of intelligence (Chu[1], 2010). In such a way that being smart in its own way can be a factor affecting academic progress, motivation for progress, creativity and so on. Therefore, this role of intelligence can be the basis for separating people in gifted and normal schools, which many educational systems today base it on. In this regard, considering this, students are a huge segment of the society, so they play a huge role in the progress and future of the society. One of the factors that separates students from each other is their level of intelligence, which becomes the basis for classifying students into gifted and normal. This, in turn, affects the level of progress and academic performance, motivation for progress, creativity, social adaptation and so on. It will be effective (Nazari, 2018). One of the factors that is influenced by intelligence is the level of academic performance of people. Also, according to studies, the motivation for progress, which has been defined as a desire or interest in general success or success in a specific activity, is at a higher level in gifted students than in students with average intelligence (Alfij and Morb [2], 2008). Creativity can be mentioned among other things that are influenced by the level of intelligence in students. In this regard, Pirkhaefi et al. (2006) in a research entitled Comparison of creativity and intelligence of students of different fields of study stated that there is a significant difference between the average creativity and intelligence of students of different fields and also the level of creativity is related to the level of intelligence of people. Therefore, with regard to the role of intelligence on the level of academic performance, the motivation for progress and creativity of students, efforts should be made to clearly define the role of intelligence in the level of these factors, and based on this, it is possible to provide a suitable platform for the progress and increase of the efficiency of students as the future generation of society. 

1-2- Statement of the problem

Academic life is one of the most important aspects of people's lives, which has a great impact on other aspects of life. Intelligence is so important in the educational system that the administrators of educational issues try to outdo each other in attracting talented students. The reason for this scientific advance is that many scientific productions, discoveries and inventions depend on the mental strength of their students (Pirkhafi et al., 2016). Therefore, according to various studies, having intelligence and differences in the field of cognitive intelligence of students, lead to different psychological characteristics and consequences such as motivation to progress, creativity, academic performance, success and academic progress.

Cognitive intelligence is one of the main and important topics of psychology. Many psychologists have worked on intelligence and its tests, but none of them have been able to provide a definition that is accepted by all researchers.. It is very difficult to consider all aspects of intelligence in one definition, because intelligence is not a quality that can be seen and felt, but is a hypothetical attribute and an abstract concept, and what is studied is not intelligence itself, but its effects. In addition, intelligence is not a talent, but a collection of talents, and memory, accuracy, learning, perception, etc. have an effect on it (Milani Far, 2008). Considering the role of intelligence and its numerous and various definitions, it can be considered its role in the ability to compare and examine the difference between gifted and normal students. 

In the meantime, one of the basic issues and problems of the academic life of individuals and the educational system of any country is the low level of academic performance of the students of that country (Zahrakar, 2016). This phenomenon, in addition to huge economic losses, disturbs the mental health of learners. The meaning of the drop in academic performance is the decrease in the academic performance of the learner from a satisfactory level to an unfavorable level. Meanwhile, various factors affect people's academic performance, which education experts have divided into four categories including individual factors, school factors, family factors, and social factors (Zahrakar, 2016). Among the individual factors, one of the factors influencing the academic performance of people is their intelligence and mental ability. Another variable that is affected by the level of intelligence in people and is related to the level of intelligence is the motivation to progress, the consequence of its high level, in turn, affects the academic performance of students. Therefore, it can be said that one of the issues that have occupied the minds of many humanities thinkers and even the general public is success in life and its related factors. We all always think about how some people, even in the most difficult circumstances, never stop trying to achieve success, while others do not. This prompted psychologists to start researching the motivation for progress [3] and the factors affecting it, and to research the motivational factors [4] effective in the frequency of behavior in humans in order to achieve progress (Baker and Tarmizi [5], 2010). According to various studies, one of the factors that can be considered as fields related to the motivation of progress is the level of intelligence. In this way, when a person sees his intelligence to the extent of completing a task, it becomes a factor that affects his motivation level, although in the meantime, some factors can reduce or increase this level of influence. Gage and Berliner [6] (1992) defined achievement motivation as a desire or interest in general success or success in a specific activity. Some people have a high level of motivation and work hard to achieve success in competition with others. On the other hand, some others do not have much motivation to progress and succeed and are not ready to take risks to achieve success for fear of failure. However, this need motivates people to achieve success in the competition with the criterion of superiority (Bobledge and Simic [7], 2011). The motivation for progress makes a person always control the type and amount of his behavior and efforts to achieve his goals. Of course, the relationship between motivation to progress and self-control[8] is a two-way relationship, so that if a person has low self-control, he cannot control his behavior[9], emotions[10] and thoughts[11] to achieve his goals, so the failure[12] resulting from this causes him to have less motivation to progress (Elfij and Morb[13], 2008).

In this regard, Slavin[14] (2006, translated by Seyed Mohammadi, 2015) has defined motivation for progress as the desire or passion to achieve success and participate in activities in which success depends on personal effort and ability. He believes that people with high-level development motivation are very diligent and serious to solve problems and achieve success. In relation to whether high achievement motivation leads to success or whether success increases the level of achievement motivation, researches did not give decisive results. What is known is that motivation to progress is initially influenced by one's experiences in the family. That is, the more successful experiences a person has in his family, the higher his motivation. After the person entered school and gained more experiences, in this situation, success and motivation to progress affect each other.