Investigating the relationship between identity style and academic status of Gilan University of Medical Sciences students

Dissertation to obtain a master's degree

(Children's education orientation)

Introduction: Paying attention to the educational status is at the top of the educational development programs of a country. The goal of educational institutions is to increase academic achievement, which is a real indicator of educational goals. Continuous and ongoing examination of students' academic status during their education and the social cognitive components affecting it, including identity, is one of the essential and inevitable elements of improving the quality of education in universities.

The purpose of this research is to determine the relationship between academic status and identity style.

Method of execution: This is a cross-sectional descriptive-analytical research on 371 students of Gilan University of Medical Sciences. done The samples were selected using a systematic stratified method, and the data collection tool included demographic characteristics and the standard identity style questionnaire (ISI-6G).  In order to check the academic status, the GPA of all academic semesters and the combined index of students' academic status were used. The data were analyzed using descriptive (mean and standard deviation) and inferential (Spearman, Mann-Whitney, Kruskal-Wallis, multiple linear regression) statistical tests.

Results: The findings showed that the normative identity style (P>0.03) and the commitment dimension (P>0.001) have a statistical relationship with the GPA of all students.  Females and students who were interested in studying; They had a better educational status (in terms of overall grade point average). Factors predicting students' educational status (according to the composite index of educational status) of students, regarding the place of residence, native students had a lower average score of educational status than non-native students, and finally, students who were more interested in their field had a more suitable academic status.

Conclusion: The findings of this research show the importance of paying attention to identity and education.  By paying more serious attention to the components related to the educational status and identity, we can expect to improve the quality of education. Keywords: education, students, identity (psychology) One of the necessities of the comprehensive development of the country is the dynamism and ability of universities in doing their own affairs. Since the university is a thoughtful, knowledgeable and is considered innovative in the society, it is expected that it can take more effective steps in the realization of the society's ideals and always lead the country towards progress. The university and the higher education system in general is the most valuable resource that every society has at its disposal (1). Therefore, in today's world, it is necessary to pay attention to the quality of education and the resulting productivity Its strength has been different. According to UNESCO, quality in higher education is a multidimensional concept that depends to a large extent on the context of the university system or the conditions and standards of the university field (2).

In order to improve the quality of university education, assessment and evaluation are considered to be the most basic requirements. It is very important to carry out educational evaluation in different time intervals in order to check the effectiveness and quality of curricula (3). Assessment and evaluation form the last link in the chain of educational activities (4).

In order to check students' learning, their academic status (progress and decline) can be used. Clarifying the academic situation provides the possibility for university planners to predict strategies to improve the functions of the university (5). Academic performance or status refers to the academic progress or decline of students, which is measured by various tools such as the total grade point average, conditional semesters, and the number of failed or passed units (6).

Since long ago, the issue of success in education has been one of the most important concerns of any educational system, and academic success in any society indicates the success of the educational system in the field of goal setting and attention to meeting individual needs.. The educational system can be considered efficient and successful when the academic progress of its students in different courses has the highest and highest figures (7). Success means obtaining objective, tangible and tangible results (8). Academic achievement refers to a person's learned or acquired ability in school subjects. In general, this term means the amount of a person's school learning (9).

The counterpoint to academic progress is academic failure, which, according to numerous studies, has a significant impact on an individual's destiny and also imposes a lot of pressure on the family and society (10). The cost of the student's academic failure is on the student and educational professionals and has economic consequences. With academic failure and dropout, for whatever reason, everyone involved may experience anger, frustration, and resentment. The price a student pays may be a sense of "failure", reduced self-confidence and crushed dreams. Academic failure can affect a person's entire life by causing permanent damage to self-confidence (11).

Students who suffer from academic failure are more at risk of approaching crime, substance abuse, physical and sexual abuse, and finally family and mental disorders than other students (12). Lazin and Newman [1], in a study aimed at determining the predictors of academic failure of American students, showed that 12.6% of medical students had academic failure, which was often due to their academic inadequacy (13). In England, a survey showed that 3.8% of the students of the University of Medical Sciences dropped academically in the first year (14). In Iran, this is one of the most important current problems of the education system, which wastes tens of billions of rials from the country's budget every year, and the potential forces and capital of society, which is the human force, remain fruitless (10). The results of the research indicate that there are various levels of the prevalence of academic failure in Iranian universities (8).

Generally, about 12% of the students of the country's medical sciences universities are suspended for at least one semester during their studies. The prevalence of academic failure in Birjand University in various fields has been reported as 19.2%; This figure has been reported at Tabriz University of Medical Sciences in the Department of Nursing and Midwifery as 10.6% (8). Conditional prevalence in students of radiology, laboratory sciences and intelligence of Ardabil University of Medical Sciences was obtained as 7.7, 19 and 2.7% respectively (7). Also, Reofi and colleagues in a study with the aim of determining the academic dropout indicators of Tabriz University reported, respectively, in dentistry 22.9%, physiotherapy 12.5%, nursing and midwifery 10.6%, pharmacy 9.8%, medicine 7%, health and nutrition 6.4%, paramedicine 4.7% (15).

Educational status as a variable Dependent is not influenced by an agent. The fact is that the factors and variables are so intertwined and interact with each other that it is difficult to determine the role and contribution of each one. Self-esteem, emotional intelligence, motivation for academic progress, etc. are among the individual factors affecting the academic progress of students. However, researches show that among these factors, individual factors "of a social cognitive nature" have the greatest impact on academic progress (12).