STUDY STYLES AND STRATEGIES OF LEARNING IN ENGINEERING STUDENTS: A PROPOSAL FOR METHODOLOGICAL INNOVATION

The new ways of understanding the process of teaching-learning within university studies mean that teachers require support to change their teaching styles. This study relates the variables "learning style" and "learning strategies" with the study subjects in engineering degrees: Heat Engines and Mechanical Technology with the Mechanical Engineering degree; Theory of Circuits with the Electronics Engineering degree. Results show remarkable differences in learning strategies amongst students of different subjects in information acquisition, codification and retrieval, but not in the meta-cognitive strategies. Nor there are differences with respect to learning styles. Therefore, the students need to improve on developing self-knowledge, planning, regulation and assessment strategies, and the same on self-instructional strategies. Then, a proposal to hold meta-cognitive programs that promote student’s development is presented, in order to improve the strategies that engineering students will need in future working environments.