Eloína García Félix

Learning styles and approaches to learning in excellent and average first-year university students

We assessed the learning approaches and learning styles of a sample of 148 excellent students selected from 11 degrees from nine centers of the Polytechnic University of Valencia (Spain), and we compared the results with those of a sample of 133 average students from the same centers. We found that excellent students took deeper approach than average students and that they preferred reflective and theoretical learning styles. Average students adopted a more surface approach, and they preferred active and pragmatic learning styles. Greater academic achievement was related to the deep approach and to the reflective and theoretical learning styles. Poorer academic achievement was related to the surface approach and an active style. University professors may reinforce the deep approach by placing high aims for students which go well beyond reproducing knowledge but use other complementary methods other than expository teaching: problem solving, case studies, designing projects, raising questions, discussion and negotiation in the classroom, etc. To accomplish this, teachers must encourage students to be committed, and these methods help do that. It also helps to introduce more demanding evaluation procedures which do not merely involve repeating what has been learnt, but include training guidance that offers students feedback.

Métodos innovadores y enfoques de aprendizaje en estudiantes universitarios

Se buscaba valorar si la utilizacion de metodos innovadores, centrados en el aprendizaje, mejoraba los enfoques de aprendizaje de los estudiantes universitarios. El estudio se realizo con dos grupos de estudiantes de 1o curso (N= 112), del grado de Pedagogia de la Universidad de Valencia. Usamos un diseno preexperimental pretest-postest utilizando el cuestionario R-SPQ-2 (Biggs, Kember y Leung, 2001). Los dos profesores consensuaron la metodologia, que comportaba ensenanza expositiva reducida, preguntas, discusion en clase, clases practicas, estudio de casos, trabajo cooperativo, elaboracion en grupo de un trabajo de investigacion con presentacion ante la clase, y un sistema de evaluacion con procedimientos formativos que devolvian feedback a los estudiantes (dos entregas de portafolios, evaluacion de presentaciones orales, rubricas, coevaluacion, autoevaluacion del alumno, y pruebas escritas). Se encontraron mejoras estadisticamente significativas en las puntuaciones de enfoque profundo de aprendizaje, tanto en la puntuacion global, de enfoque, como en las parciales de las dos dimensiones que evalua el cuestionario, motivos y estrategias. No se encontraron diferencias estadisticamente significativas en las puntuaciones del enfoque superficial, aunque estas disminuyeron.