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.     

Measuring the “transfer of meaning” through members of equivalence classes merged via a class-specific reinforcement procedure

Seven participants received conditional discrimination training that established the 12 conditional relations A1B1, A2B2, A3B3, A1C1, A2C2, A3C3, D1E1, D2E2, D3E3, D1F1, D2F2, and D3F3. The A stimuli were pictures of faces portraying emotional expressions; the others were arbitrary forms. Correct responses resulted in presentations of class-specific reinforcers, Sr1, Sr2, and Sr3. After training, tests confirmed the formation of ABC and DEF equivalence classes. Further tests then documented the merger of the classes and the emergence of SrB, SrC, SrE, and SrF relations, showing that the class-specific reinforcers were equivalence class members. Finally, participants did Semantic Differential ratings that tested whether the emotional valence of the A stimuli transferred to the arbitrary forms, B and E. The results show that participants’ evaluations of the B and E stimuli were similar to evaluations of the A stimuli made by participants of a control group. This finding is considered as a demonstration that class-specific outcomes can mediate class merger phenomena and the transfer of functions through members of merged classes.     

Determination of a quantitative parameter to evaluate swimming technique based on the maximal tethered swimming test

The aim of this study was to propose a new force parameter, associated with swimmers’ technique and performance. Twelve swimmers performed five repetitions of 25 m sprint crawl and a tethered swimming test with maximal effort. The parameters calculated were: the mean swimming velocity for crawl sprint, the mean propulsive force of the tethered swimming test as well as an oscillation parameter calculated from force fluctuation. The oscillation parameter evaluates the force variation around the mean force during the tethered test as a measure of swimming technique. Two parameters showed significant correlations with swimming velocity: the mean force during the tethered swimming (r = 0.85) and the product of the mean force square root and the oscillation (r = 0.86). However, the intercept coefficient was significantly different from zero only for the mean force, suggesting that although the correlation coefficient of the parameters was similar, part of the mean velocity magnitude that was not associated with the mean force was associated with the product of the mean force square root and the oscillation. Thus, force fluctuation during tethered swimming can be used as a quantitative index of swimmers’ technique.     

Learning to learn at university. The effects of an instrumental subject on learning strategies and academic achievement / Aprender a aprender en la universidad. Efectos de una materia instrumental sobre las estrategias de aprendizaje y el rendimiento académico

Self-regulated learning is very important at university, since students must manage the strategies and abilities necessary to be autonomous and effective in their learning. The aim of this study was to analyse the effects of a course designed for this purpose on learning strategies and students’ achievement of first-year university students. A quasi-experimental pre-test/post-test design was used, with an experimental group and a control group, applying measurement instruments before starting and after finishing the course. The learning process was analysed on this course, with students being trained in the use of relevant learning strategies — metacognitive strategies, strategies for processing and using information and affective and motivational strategies. The sample consisted of 47 students, 23 of them belonging to the experimental group and 24 of them to the control group, from various degrees at the University of Valencia. The results confirmed significant improvements in the learning strategy scores of the experimental group compared to the control group. There was also an improvement in academic achievement, but in this case the differences were not statistically significant.     

Women Archetype and Female Physical Education during Franco's Dictatorship

The subject of this paper consists on the ideal of women in Spain during Franco's dictatorship (1939–1975) and how it was transmitted through women Physical Education and female sports, directed by the Women Section. The research focuses on the concepts and values from different fields (political, professional, cultural, religious, etc.) which described women and determined their life during this period, and which showed through physical and sport activities specific to this gender. The research is justified and put into context in the first part of the paper. In the second part of the paper, the female model as proposed by the ideology of the dictatorship is described, and how this model was reflected in female Physical Education – both in the initial training of female teachers and in the proposed practices for Spanish women. In the third part of the paper, some of the contradictions of the Women Section regarding the woman archetype are exposed, as well as the final conclusions of this investigation.     

Enhancing self-regulation and approaches to learning in first-year college students: a narrative-based programme assessed in the Iberian Peninsula

A programme to enhance first-year college students’ self-regulated learning strategies is proposed and assessed in two samples, one from the University of Oviedo (Spain) and the other from the University of Minho (Portugal). Each sample was divided into two groups (experimental and control). The Spanish sample comprised 44 students in the experimental group and 40 in the control group, whereas in the Portuguese sample, the number of students was 48 and 44, respectively. The narrative-based intervention programme is organised around a set of fictional letters from a first-year college student in which he reports his own academic experiences. Each letter focuses on a learning strategy as an opportunity to teach and enhance the students’ deep approaches to learning and their self-regulated learning processes. In both samples, findings confirm the programme efficacy to teach efficient learning strategies and to promote self-regulation. Implications for college students and for teaching are discussed.     

El software educativo y el laboratorio de lengua

Escribir a mano es importante. Escribir a máquina también, aunque la escuela ha ignorado esa destreza como ajena a los procesos esenciales de la lectoescritura. Pero escribir en ordenador con un procesador de textos no es ya algo que pueda ignorar la escuela a menos que pague un precio abrumadoramente mayor que el simple hecho de dejar a la mayoría de la población inerme ante los teclados mecánicos o ejerciendo un cómico tecleado con dos deditos. El procesador de textos no sólo ejecuta el nivel inferior del proceso de escribir, sino que se mueve en todos y cada uno de los niveles. Su aprendizaje y uso en la educación y en las clases de lenguas puede tener un efecto positivo en una enorme diversidad de tareas didácticas, algunas de las cuales se proponen en este artículo.     

Subgroups of Attributional Profiles in Students with Learning Difficulties and Their Relation to Self‐Concept and Academic Goals

The aim of this article was fourfold: first, to determine whether there are significant differences between students with (N= 173) and without learning disabilities (LD; N= 172) in the dimensions of self‐concept, causal attributions, and academic goals. Second, to determine whether students with LD present a uniform attributional profile or whether there are subgroups of attributional profiles among students with LD. Third, to explore differences between these profiles on the dimensions of self‐concept, academic goals, perception of competence‐incompetence, persistence when faced with failure, peer relationships, and academic achievement. Fourth, to determine whether there are significant differences in the dimensions of self‐concept and academic goals between NLD students and the different LD subgroups. The results indicate the existence of two very distinct attributional profiles in students with LD (Helplessness Profile and Adaptive Profile). The implications of these data with regard to theory and research, as well as educational practice, are discussed.