A Quantitative Analysis on the Differences in Secondary School Students’ Use of Learning Strategies

Learners use various strategies to acquire new knowledge, skills or attitudes. In this context, it can be said that secondary school students also use various strategies in the learning-teaching process. It is important that the methods, techniques, and practices that teachers will use are appropriate for students' learning strategies in order to realize effective teaching. This study aims to determine the level of secondary education students' use of learning strategies and the level of secondary education students' use of learning strategies in terms of some variables. The population consists of 13762 secondary education students studying in Erzincan province in the 2023-2024 academic year, and the sample consists of 1247 secondary education students studying in secondary education institutions located in Erzincan city centre and a district and selected by a decisional way. Data were collected from the sample through a personal information form and the ACRA-shortened learning strategies scale. Descriptive statistics, factorial ANOVA, correlation and stepwise regression analyses were used to analyse the data. In the study, it was determined that secondary school students mostly used explanation and metacognitive strategies, and that female students benefited from learning strategies more than male students. When the type of school is taken into consideration, it was found that Anatolian High School students used explanation and metacognitive strategies more than Science High School and Fine Arts High School students, and Social Sciences High School students more than Fine Arts High School students. Anatolian High School students used to learn supportive strategies more than Science High School and Fine Arts High School students, Vocational and Technical Anatolian High School students more than Science High School and Fine Arts High School students. Anatolian High School students used repeating and organizing strategies more than Science High School, Social Sciences High School and Vocational and Technical Anatolian High School students, Social Sciences High School students more than Science High School and Fine Arts High School students. In addition, some of the results of the study revealed that secondary school students who frequently use explanation and metacognitive strategies are students with high academic achievement.