Academic Achievement from the point of View of Motivation and Cognitive Style

This article by three authors is an attempt at a more comprehensive approach to the analyssis of the pupils' academic achievement. In its first part a theoretical analysis is made of the achievement motivation, prospective orientation and memory dimension of the cognitive style as non-intellectual factors influencing the level of the academic achievement. The theoretical analysis has shown that a) in the field of achievement motivation it is useful to consider two specific achievement neeeds: the need for a classroom success and the need to avoid failure at school, which significandy influence the academic achievement; b) in the field of prospective motivation it is possible to think of the need for time structuf’ation, wich forms its motivation basis; c) in the field of the memory dimension of the cognitive style in relation to academic achievement it appears as useful to work with two basic dimensions known as „sharpening“ and „levelling“.
The research carried out with a sample of 130 pupils attending the 6 th year and the 7th year of the elementaiy school has confirmed the correctness of the theoretical starting points and has brought a number of interesting findings. A correlation analysis has shown that there exist different relationships between the variables under investigation and the academic achievement when comparing samples of boys and girls, pupils in the 6 th year and in the 7th year, pupils with above-average and those with below-average intellectual faculties. Two factor analyses carried out with samples of boys and girls show markedly different structures and these are interpreted in the article. The attempt at a more comprehensive approach chosen by the authors has proved fruitful mainly because it offers the possibility of typologizing underachievers and thereby also the possibility of utilizing the results for educational practice.