Variability of Higher Education Students’ Learning Styles Depending on Gender, Course, Degree and Institutional Context

Pilar Alonso-Martín, Rocío Cruz-Díaz, Carmen Granado-Alcón, Rocío Lago-Urbano and Concha Martínez-García
Additional contact information
Pilar Alonso-Martín: Department of Social, Developmental and Educational Psychology, University of Huelva, Avda. de las Fuerzas Armadas s/n., 21007 Huelva, Spain
Rocío Cruz-Díaz: Department of Education and Social Psychology, Universidad Pablo de Olavide, Ctra. Utrera, Km 1, ES-41003 Seville, Spain
Carmen Granado-Alcón: Department of Social, Developmental and Educational Psychology, University of Huelva, Avda. de las Fuerzas Armadas s/n., 21007 Huelva, Spain
Rocío Lago-Urbano: Department of Social, Developmental and Educational Psychology, University of Huelva, Avda. de las Fuerzas Armadas s/n., 21007 Huelva, Spain
Concha Martínez-García: Department of Social, Developmental and Educational Psychology, University of Huelva, Avda. de las Fuerzas Armadas s/n., 21007 Huelva, Spain

Sustainability, 2021, vol. 13, issue 4, 1-18

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.

Keywords: education change; higher education; degree; learning style; lifelong learning; sustainability; educational paradigm (search for similar items in EconPapers)
JEL-codes: O13 Q Q0 Q2 Q3 Q5 Q56 (search for similar items in EconPapers)
Date: 2021
References: View references in EconPapers View complete reference list from CitEc
Citations: View citations in EconPapers (1)

Downloads: (external link)
https://www.mdpi.com/2071-1050/13/4/1659/pdf (application/pdf)
https://www.mdpi.com/2071-1050/13/4/1659/ (text/html)

Related works:
This item may be available elsewhere in EconPapers: Search for items with the same title.

Export reference: BibTeX RIS (EndNote, ProCite, RefMan) HTML/Text

Persistent link: https://EconPapers.repec.org/RePEc:gam:jsusta:v:13:y:2021:i:4:p:1659-:d:492975

Access Statistics for this article

Sustainability is currently edited by Ms. Alexandra Wu

More articles in Sustainability from MDPI
Bibliographic data for series maintained by MDPI Indexing Manager ().