Diagnosis of learning styles of etnia gitana students in difficult performance centers. Proposal for evaluation and action

Abstract

The students who are enrolled in the compulsory secondary level in a context of special difficulty, such as the centers classified as "achievement challenged" (at risk), have different profiles and present different needs; This diversity results in different motivations, interests and expectations that, usually, have not been recognized nor addressed in curriculum development. We can be faced with a totally normalized population sector, composed of structured and functional families, or on the other hand, confronted with another reality that presents dysfunctional and conflictive conditions that affect daily life at home, at school, socially, etc. The main objective of the exploratory-descriptive study was to make a diagnosis of the learning styles of students found in achievement challenged centers at the compulsory secondary level in several of the Institutions of Secondary Education located in the neighborhood of Tres Mil Viviendas (Three Thousand Dwellings) of the city of Seville, in which the population, mainly, is of gypsy ethnicity. The Rita Dunn, Kenneth Dunn and Gary E. Price (1984) Learning Styles Questionnaire was used with a sample of 122 students, between 1º-4º Obligatory Secondary, of which 38.5% were girls, and 61.5% were boys. The results obtained inform about the variety of ways of perceiving, feeling, knowing, doing, etc., reflecting the different learning styles, as well as the need to adjust the teaching style of the teacher to the students. It highlighted the importance of the emotional and sociological elements in the context of a learning situation. Working with others as a team, and the need for motivation and supervision by the teacher, are some of the variables most indicated by the students of gypsy ethnicity in this study. Other products obtained in this context have been a rubric to evaluate the adaptation between teaching styles and learning styles and a proposal of intervention based on tutorial orientation programs and peer mentoring.