Abstract
In higher education it is important to consider learning styles of students to facilitate the teaching–learning process. The aims guiding the research were to describe the learning styles predominating among students in the field of the social sciences, to analyse the results with respect to gender, year of study, degree course and institution, and to perform correlation analysis between these variables. The data analyses were carried out with non-parametric statistics with a confidence level of 95%. The sample was composed of 636 students at the Universities of Huelva (UHU), Cádiz (UCA), and Pablo de Olavide of Seville (UPO), who completed the Honey–Alonso Learning Styles Questionnaire and reported sociodemographic and educational data. The results showed a significant preference for the Reflector style. Significant correlations were found in most variables highlighting that the courses showed an inverse correlation with the learning styles, the Activist, Theorist, and Pragmatist styles being less preferred as they progressed in the career. It is worth noting the significant direct correlation between Reflector, Theorist, and Pragmatist styles, but the Activist style inversely correlates with all three. As a complementary contribution, a proposal for intervention in classrooms with a sustainable perspective is offered. It is important to attend to the evolution in the preference of the learning styles that students acquire as they advance in higher education courses in order to facilitate a more optimal and sustainable teaching–learning process.
Highlights
The current model of education within the European Higher Education Area (EEES)sets up a format of the teaching–learning process based on competences acquisition
Analysis of the results shows that it is the Reflector style that obtained the highest Analysis of the results shows that it is the Reflector style that obtained the highest average score
Regarding the aim of comparing the distribution of learning styles in terms of “degree subject”, our findings revealed significant differences that bore similarities with those of other studies focussing like ours on degrees in the social sciences [56,59,60], at the same time, they differed from other studies that found a strong preference for the Reflector style across the range of degree subjects with no significant differences [61,62]
Summary
Sets up a format of the teaching–learning process based on competences acquisition This model requires the organisation of new formative proposals in which the essential keys change so as not to focus the emphasis on the teacher and her formal teaching to the students and their learning. These changes are orientated to competences acquisition in which the main purpose focuses on developing a more practical higher education orientated to instruct “sustainable citizens” able to think, make critical reflections, act for societal transformation, and show social cohesion.
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