European Journal of Educational Research Volume 8, Issue 1, 99 - 106. ISSN: 2165-8714 http://www.eu-jer.com/ Undergraduates’ Achievement Goal Orientations, Academic Self -Efficacy and Hope as the Predictors of Their Learning Approaches * Makbule Kali Soyer ** Marmara University, TURKEY Berke Kirikkanat Yeditepe University, TURKEY Received: October 1, 2018 ▪ Revised: November 18, 2018 ▪ Accepted: November 30, 2018 Abstract: The aim of the present study was to figure out whether university students’ learning approaches were shaped via their achievement goal orientations, academic self-efficacy and hope or not. The other objective was to examine if these psychological constructs varied in accordance with the demographic variables including gender, age and class level. 332 undergraduates from two different universities who were in the year of junior and senior participated in the study. The Achievement Goal Orientations Scale, the Academic Self-Efficacy Scale, the Dispositional Hope Scale and the Demographic Form were utilized to reveal the predictive power of these constructs on their learning attitudes measured by the Revised Two-Factor Study Process Questionnaire. Multiple linear regression analysis indicated that learning goal orientation was a pivotal predictor of both deep and surface approach to learning. Academic self-efficacy and hope were the crucial precursors of deep approach while performance-avoidance goal inclination was a considerable predictor of surface approach. Independent samples t-test analysis displayed that the female undergraduates were superior to the male ones in terms of the learning goal tendency. And the students (20 to 22 aged) demonstrated higher scores on the same variable than the other ones (23 to 25 aged). On the basis of class level, there were no significant differences in the scores of achievement goal orientations, academic self-efficacy, hope and learning approaches. The results pointed out the fact that such concepts pertinent to an undergraduate’s academic performance could be viewed as distinctive features engendering different learning attitudes toward scholastic training. Keywords: Achievement goal orientation, academic self-efficacy, hope, undergraduates, learning approaches. To cite this article: Kali Soyer, M., & Kirikkanat, B. (2019). Undergraduates’ Achievement Goal Orientations, Academic Self-Efficacy and Hope as the Predictors of Their Learning Approaches. European Journal of Educational Research, 8(1), 99-106. doi: 10.12973/eu- jer.8.1.99 Introduction Higher education, a complex structure of studying, learning and teaching level, contains lots of academic and amicable struggles students should handle with. Especially, the burden from which university education demands makes students figure out the effective learning strategies for their academic survival. These learning approaches derive from the interaction between the student and the material that should be learned (Ramsden, 2003). Therefore, how a student deals with the learning material determines his potential academic pathway, constituting his educational improvement during his training. Thus, it is pivotal for instructors, counselors and educational policy makers to focus on students’ distinctive learning tendencies so as to increase the status of higher education in general via providing a proper learning environment for them. Learning approach has become one of the most thoroughly research topic in psychology during 1970s and 80s (Cano, Martin, Ginns and Berben, 2018). Nowadays, learning apprach is considered as a significant component to analyse high students’success (Hall, Ramsay, & Raven, 2004; Everaert, Opdecam,&Maussen (2017). For Marton and Sälj o (1976), students produce divergent academic outcomes emanating from the discrepancies in coping with the learning task. Based on their distinctive objectives, they differ in emphasizing either the comprehension of the task or the clues of passing it. The former is called as deep; the latter is labeled as surface degree of processing. Students’ approaches to learning (SALs, e.g., deep and surface), aim to reveal how students compose their structure of learning which has been constitute of intentions (motives) as well as methods (strategies) (Biggs, 2001). Students acquiring a deep learning approach aim to understand the material while the students with a surface approach target to reproduce the material (Biggs, 2001). * This research was orally presented at the 19 th International Academic Conference, on September 16-19 2015 in Florence/Italy. ** Corresponding author: Makbule Kali Soyer, Marmara University, Ataturk Faculty of Education, Department of Educational Sciences, Istanbul - Turkey.  makbulesoyer@marmara.edu.tr