The necessity to adapt instruction to the students’ intellectual development

The aim of this pilot study was to identify the relationship between the students’ intellectual development and their motivated strategies for learning. The sample: 120 students from the Psychology specialization, within the 18-23 years age group and from various study years. The test portfolio: REI (Paccini & Epstein, 1999); the questionnaire for identifying preferred learning environment and the preference for learning situations (Paloş & Maricuţoiu, 2006); MSLQ (Rao & Sachs, 1999). Through this study we were able to capture some cognitive and motivational variables which can help us design an “instructional model” to valorize the potential of the students.