Abstract:

During the academic year 2021/22, a research-based learning (RBL) experience was carried out in the Agricultural Engineering School of the Technical University of Madrid. The learning styles of the students were assessed according to the model of Honey and Mumford. This model describes four learning styles: Activist, Theorist, Pragmatist and Reflector. The activist style is inclined to learn discovering and likes novelties in knowledge and the latest scientific issues, preferring activities of discovery and personal activity in learning. Reflector style likes to analyse a topic from several points of view to form a model about what is learned, intervening thought, inquiry and question in that process. The pragmatist style learns by putting ideas into practice and testing new theories and techniques, analysing their usefulness, in a practical way and attached to reality. The theorist is a learning style in which rationality, objectivity and precision are sought, structuring the information in a synthetic and systematic way. The aim of the experience was to assess the influence of the learning style of the students in the academic performance in a RBL activity. In this RBL activity, students analysed a research paper and they had to point out the following topics: chapters and subchapters of the paper, main objective and secondary objectives of the research, and main key words. They had also to summarize the introduction, to identify the experimental factors included and to describe the trial layout, to resume the results of the paper and to summarize the main conclusions of the study.

Students who showed a higher preference for the reflector and pragmatist learning styles obtained better grades in the activity of RBL. Conversely, students with a higher preference for activist learning style scored lower in that activity. There was a positive correlation between the score in the reflector style and the final grade in June, as well as with the grades obtained in theoretical and practical tests that were done during the evaluation of the subject. However, the score in the pragmatist style was only positively correlated with the grades in the practical exams and the RBL activity. By the other hand, activists style scores were negatively correlated with the grades in RBL activity, and of the practical and theoretical exams. Besides, theorist style scores were not correlated with the grades in the RBL activity, but they were positively correlated with the grades in all other activities and examinations. These results will help us to continue applying the RBL methodology in other courses, trying to adapt the activities to the learning styles of the students, promoting the strengths of the main style of learning of the students, but also working the weak points of them.

Keywords:

Learning styles, research based learning, engineering, technology.