University Students and Meanings of Education

Document Type : Original Article

Authors

1 Assistant Professor, Department of Psychology, Urmia University

2 Assistant Professor, Department of Education, Urmia University

3 M.A. (Psychology) student

Abstract

The present research is an attempt to study the meanings of education from the perspectives of  students of Urmia University in 2009. The sample population of the present study consisted of 227 students – 131 boys and 96 girls, and 99 successful and 128 unsuccessful students–who were selected from five faculties through cluster sampling method. The Meanings of Education (MOE) questionnaire of Handerson – King and Smith was chosen to collect data. The tool had 10 components including: career, independence, future, learning, self, next step, social world, surrounding world, stress, and escape.
Analysis of Variance and t-test was used and the faculties, successful and unsuccessful students, and girls and boys were compared according to the meanings of education. The results showed that:
1. MOE in career, independence, future, learning, self, stress and escape were significantly different among students in the faculties.
2. Variance analysis showed that MOE in career, stress and escape were significantly different between successful and unsuccessful students.
3. MOE in career, future learning and stress were significantly different between male and female students.

Keywords