Understanding the Effects of a Process‐orientated Instruction in the First Year of University by Investigating Learning Style Characteristics

Publisher Website
Google Scholar
Abstract
In an attempt to remedy transition problems from secondary education to university, the Learning and Guidance Centre of the Faculty of Sciences at the Vrije Universiteit Brussel has developed a process‐orientated instruction, called Interactive Working Groups (IWG). The major goal is to promote in‐depth learning by the training of general and specific learning skills in a content‐specific context. Previous quantitative analyses have shown that participation in IWG leads to better performance in examinations and induces positive effects on the learning approach. Therefore, we considered separately variables such as prior knowledge test results, examination scores and learning style characteristics. The goal of the present research is to understand these effects by analysing quantitatively the interdependency of previous variables. The results show, for instance, that the IWG enhance precisely those changes in learning approach and regulation which induce an increase in performance in examinations. The results were confirmed by qualitative analyses through interviews.