Learning Patterns Identification as a Strategy for Digital Appropriation Skills in Fresher University Students

Abstract

In the current era of the digital and knowledge society with an imminent fourth industrial revolution, many subjects related to the appropriation of Digital Technologies are understood as basic professional skills of the 21^st century. In this way of thinking, this article shows the results obtained from a study of 205 last year’s high school students about their learning patterns and how this could be related to the acquisition of digital technology appropriation skills in their first university semester. The mixed research approach uses the data from a survey of learning patterns named Inventory of Learning Styles (ILS) to perform a factor analysis and identify clusters that allowed to classify the population into groups according to their affinity level with learning patterns, closely related to skills of appropriation of digital technologies. The research makes possible to establish curricular management strategies to strengthen these skills. With the data analysis, it was possible to identify three groups where one of them has greater affinity with learning patterns oriented to meaningful learning, this group also has a better performance in digital technology appropriation skills.