Attitude and Learning Approaches in the Study of General Didactics. A Multivariate Analysis.

Abstract

The influence of different approaches and attitudes towards learning in the General Didactics is studied in a few investigations. The main objective of this work is to describe in a multivariate way the relationships between attitudes toward General Didactics and learning approaches of students majoring in Social Learning at the University of Salamanca. The Measurement of Attitude towards General Didactics and the Revised Study Process Questionnaire two factor (R-SPQ-2F) questionnaires were used to gather the information. The analysis of the relationship between attitude and learning approaches is performed using the HJ-Biplot. This multivariate statistical technique allows the simultaneous representation of students, attitudes, and learning approaches. This methodology, combined with the hierarchical clustering method, reveals the existence of four types of students: C1, those characterized by high marks on interest, professional usefulness, and deep study of the subject; C2, those that display high anxiety and high marks in the superficial study; C3, students that show average interest, low anxiety, superficial study and believe in the professional usefulness of Didactics; and C4, students with high levels of anxiety that study the subject in depth. These results point to the existence of a relationship between attitudes and learning approaches and can be used to improve the performance and offerings of educational teams, achieving more efficient strategies that lead to a better-educated student community.