ASSESSMENT OF LEARNING STYLES: A MULTIDISCIPLINARY STUDY. IS THERE ROOM FOR LEARNING STYLES IN THE EHEA?

In general, Spanish University steadily relies on a teaching style based on conceptualization, which is a fundamentally theoretical approach. For this reason, adapting our syllabus to the objectives posed by the European Higher Education Area (EHEA) constitutes a real challenge, since non-theoretical skills play a preponderant role in the new European University schemes. At Spanish Universities, after more than ten years of adaptation attempts, there are still some difficulties while trying to adapt the syllabus and the teaching. Difficulties are not only linked with the new learning structure (a 4-year degree with 240 ECTS) but also with the innovative philosophy that lies beneath the whole EHEA process. Less than a year before the establishment of the new degrees, our feeling is that still neither teachers nor students have a clear idea of their role in the new system. In order to facilitate this adaptation process, Spanish Universities are articulating courses and seminars that aim at palliating the impact of such changes.
These courses cover new teaching methodologies, new technologies and new ways of understanding the learning process. However, this training does not make differences among disciplines nor degrees. On the contrary, the implicit assumption between these programs is that “a single solution serves to all” and, therefore, that similarities clearly outnumber differences among learning profiles in different degrees and disciplines.
However, could we assume that students’ learning styles are homogeneous among disciplines? Even if they are not, should we assume that teaching methodologies such as portfolios or case-driven methodologies are bound to improve the learning process regardless of the students’ learning style?
Existing empirical research suggests that learning styles (1) differ among disciplines and even among degrees, and that (2) they do play a role in the kind of learning activities through which students learn better. In this paper we will try to corroborate these hypotheses with respect to the University of Alicante. For this purpose, our study has surveyed 326 students belonging to two different disciplines: Social Sciences and Engineering. The assessment of the learning style has been done with the LSI instrument, which has scored high at both internal and external validity. The results of this study corroborate the hypothesis that different degrees involve different learning profiles, and therefore it suggests the need for a customised strategy to organize their learning processes. We believe that universities need to take into account these divergences among disciplines when designing their training programs in order to increase both the effectiveness and confidence of both teachers and students in the smoothness of the transition to the new EHEA context.