A MULTI-PERSPECTIVE STUDY ON COGNITIVE, EMOTIONAL, AND SOCIAL FOUNDATIONS OF LEARNING

Abstract

Learning is a multidimensional process which is influenced by cognitive, emotional and social factors interacting to determine academic experiences and outcomes of students. This paper was done to analyze the personal and combined levels of influences of cognitive processes, emotions, and social dynamics on academic achievement among university students. Quantitative research design was adopted, where a survey was conducted to gather information about 400 students in four government universities. Cognitive factors (attention, memory, and problem-solving), emotional factors (motivation, emotion regulation, and stress), and social factors (peer interaction and teacher-student relationships) were assessed using standardized instruments. The analysis of the data was performed with the help of descriptive statistics, Pearson correlation, multiple and hierarchical regression analyses. The results indicated that all three domains had significant positive correlations with academic performance. Cognitive factors came out as the most serious predictors, after which came emotional and social factors. The hierarchical regression analysis proved to show that a combination of cognitive, emotional and social factors can explain a significant amount of variance in academic performance, which is evidence of the interdependence between the foundations of learning. The research finding is that successful learning in higher education must be holistic, considering not only cognitive abilities but also students' emotional and social learning-related conditions.