Caracterización de los estilos de enseñanza y de aprendizaje en geografíaun avance hacia su inclusión en las aulas de secundaria

Abstract

The growing interest in the individualization of teaching-learning process and the lack of studies linked to teaching and learning styles in Geography justify the research problem: what influence do these styles have on learning outcomes derived from the educational proposals of geography according the curriculum of the third grade of compulsory secondary-school education? Studies that evaluate educational interventions or methodological approaches are considered as a response to offering an improved relation to the learning results they produce, justifying our aim to reach the application of learning styles through an educational sequence. The theoretical framework exhibits the research background, the enlightening values of Geography and the different theoretical families of learning styles. In this last section, the one which understands styles as preferences when processing information (cognitive) that are flexible and stable is highlighted. In this regard, it is described the learning styles model of Alonso, Gallego and Honey (1999), to which this work is linked. Last theoretical chapter leads us to place learning and assessment activities at the center of educational methodology, taking these into consideration in order to formulate two hypothetical models that link each type of activity to a preferred learning style. The general aim of this study is to discover and understand the influence of the learning and teaching styles on the results produced by an implemented program devised for geography education in the third grade of compulsory Secondary Education. This general purpose is specified in specific objectives, as featured examples: to describe the learning styles of the students, to discover the relationship between them and the academic performance in Geography, to determine the inference of the matching between the learning styles and the teaching styles on the academic performance in Geography, to devise an educational program, entitled "La sostenibilidad como vía de desarrollo" (Sustainability as a means of development) or assessing the learning acquired in each type of activity and analyzing the results attending to the learning styles. The research methodology, based on the program evaluation theory, structures the study in four phases: context, input, process and product evaluation (CIPP model). It is used a mixed design that assume the combination of quantitative and qualitative research methodologies. In respect of the context and characteristics of the students and teachers of the municipality of Murcia that participates in the research: on the one hand, in the study of context evaluation, 10 educational centers participate and a totally of 483 students of the third grade of Compulsory Secondary Education and 21 teachers of Geography and History; on the other hand, the input, process and product evaluations realize with a group of 23 students of a Secondary public school located in a district around the city of Murcia. The analysis and discussion of the results has led to a series of direct conclusions: the learning profile of the participating students shows a prevalence of Reflexive and Theoretical styles; students seem to obtain higher grades in their learning of geographical contents when their learning style profile shows higher scores for Reflexive and Theoretical styles than for Active style; the grades of a Geography student are better when the student and the teacher have a firm preference for Reflexive and Formal styles, respectively; the master class produces better performances the higher the score for Reflexive style in our students' learning profiles; the performance of the students is lower in objectively scored assessment tests the higher the scores in Active and Pragmatic styles in their learning profiles; among other relevant conclusions.