The relationship between learning styles and motivation to transfer of learning in a vocational training programme

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www.elsevier.es/sumapsicol

The

relationship

between

learning

styles

and

motivation

to

transfer

of

learning

in

a

vocational

training

programme

夽

Pablo

Olivos

a,∗

_,

_Antonio

_Santos

b

_,

_Sergio

_Martín

c

_,

_Miguel

_{Ca ˜nas}

c

_,

Emilio

Gómez-Lázaro

c

_,

_Yuxa

_Maya

d

a_Faculty_of_Labour_Relations_and_Human_Resources,_University_of_Castilla-La_Mancha,_Spain b_Faculty_of_Economic_and_Business_Sciences,_University_of_Castilla-La_Mancha,_Spain

c_Renewable_Energy_Research_Institute_and_{DIEEAC/EDII-AB,}_University_of_Castilla-La_Mancha,_Spain d_Faculty_of_Psychology,_Universidad_Complutense_of_Madrid,_Spain

a

r

t

i

c

l

e

i

n

f

o

Articlehistory:

Received11December2014 Accepted16December2015 Availableonline26February2016

Keywords:

Learningstyles Motivationtotransfer

Vocationaltrainingprogramme

a

b

s

t

r

a

c

t

AlthoughthereisampleresearchaboutKolb’slearningstyles,fewstudieshaveexamined theirrelationshipwithmotivationstotransfer,aconceptusedtoassesswhetherthe con-tentandcompetencieslearnedthroughprofessionaltrainingactivitiesaretransferredto the workplacecontext.Ninety-six students(M=24.58years old;99%males)fromthree vocationaltraininginstitutesparticipatedinlaboratoryactivitiesattheRenewableEnergy ResearchInstituteoftheUniversityofCastilla-LaMancha,Spain.Theycompleteda self-administeredquestionnairethatincludedtheKolb’sLearningStylesInventory;twoscales adaptedtomeasurestudentmotivationtotransfertheirlearningfromtrainingexperiences; andascaleofsatisfactionwiththeactivities.Acorrelationanalysisshowedpositiveand moderatelystrongcorrelations(r=.708;p<.01)betweenmotivationstotransferand“the rel-evanceoftheactivitiestoacademicperformance”.Adiscriminantanalysisbetweentransfer andlearningstylesrevealedthatthe“Studenttrainingmotivation”itemresultedinadistinct differencebetweenassimilatorsandconvergers,explaining97.1%ofthemodelvariance (Wilks’=.459;2₌_21.028;_Sig.₌_.002)_and_classifying_56.4%_of_the_cases._A_discussion_is

pre-sentedastotheimplicationsoftheseresultsforthetheoryoflearningstylesandtheways inwhichthedesignoftheeducationalactivitiesdescribedinthestudycanbeimproved.

夽_This_research_is_part_of_a_teaching_{collaboration}_between_the_Renewable_Energy_Research_Institute_of_University_of_Castilla-La_Mancha

(UCLM)andthreevocationaltraininginstitutesinCastilla-LaMancha,inassociationwiththeteachinginnovationprojectssponsored byUCLMEnergyandEnvironmentScienceandTechnologyCampus(CampusCientíﬁcoyTecnológicodelaEnergíayelMedioambiente, CYTEMA).

∗ _{Corresponding}_author_.

E-mailaddress:[email protected](P.Olivos).

http://dx.doi.org/10.1016/j.sumpsi.2016.02.001

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Relación

entre

estilos

de

aprendizaje

y

motivación

para

transferir

aprendizajes

en

formación

profesional

Palabrasclave:

Estilosdeaprendizaje Motivaciónparatransferir Formaciónprofesional

r

e

s

u

m

e

n

AunqueabundaninvestigacionessobrelosestilosdeaprendizajedeKolb,escasean estu-diossobresurelaciónconlamotivaciónparaeltransfer,unconceptoutilizadoparaevaluar latransferenciadecontenidosycompetenciasadquiridasenactividadesdeformaciónal contextolaboral.Noventayseisestudiantes(M=24.58a ˜nosdeedad;el99%varones)de3 institutosdeformaciónprofesionalparticiparonenactividadesdelaboratorioenelInstituto deEnergíasRenovablesdelaUniversidaddeCastilla-LaMancha,Espa ˜na.Completaronun cuestionarioautoadministradoqueincluíaelInventariodeEstilosdeAprendizajedeKolb; 2escalasadaptadasparamedirlamotivaciónparaeltransferdelosestudiantes;yuna escaladesatisfacciónconlasactividades.Seobservancorrelacionespositivasy moderada-mentefuertes(r=.708;p<.01)entreeltransferyla«valoracióndelautilidaddelasprácticas parasusactividadesacadémicas».Unanálisisdiscriminanteentreeltransferylosestilos deaprendizajerevelóque«lamotivacióndelosestudiantes»diferenciaclaramenteentre asimiladoresyconvergentes;loqueexplicael97.1%delavarianzamodelo(Wilks␭=.459;

␹2=21.028;Sig.=.002)yunaclasiﬁcacióndel56.4%deloscasos.Sediscutenlas implica-cionesparalateoríadelosestilosdeaprendizajeylasmejoraseneldise ˜nodeestetipode actividades.

Learning

styles

and

education

The changes implemented to improve higher education instructionincludetheshiftfromateacher-focusedparadigm toastudent-focusedone.Thestudent-focusedclassroomwas onceamoretheoreticalthanpracticalconcept(Biggs,2003; Morales,2006;Yániz,2006),andassuch,educatorsneed con-cepts,theoriesand strategiesthatwillhelpthemmakethe pedagogicaltransition.

Thelearning stylesproposed by DavidKolb (1976) offer apreviouslyvalidated theoretical-conceptualmodel that is particularlyusefulforunderstandingstudents’motivesand learningneeds.Astudent’slearningstyleisdeterminedusing the Learning Style Inventory (LSI); this a successful scale thathasbeenwidelyappliedandvalidatedinmanystudies (e.g.,Beutell&Kressel,1984;Boyatzis& Kolb,1991;Chen& Chiou,2012;Cornwell&Manfredo,1994;Garner,2000;Healey & Jenkins, 2000; Kolb & Kolb, 2005, 2012; Manolis, Burns, Assudani,&Chinta,2013;Richardson,2011;Williams,Brown, &Etherington,2013;Yeboah&Sarpong,2012).

Thetheory proposes a methodfor describing how stu-dentssolveproblemsandapplynewknowledgefrompersonal experiencewithintheirlearningenvironment.Itconsidersthe psychologicalprocesses ofperception and processing. Stu-dents’experiencesareclassiﬁedalongtwoaxes;onewhose polesrepresentconcreteexperience andabstract conceptualisa-tionandanotherthatrepresentsacontinuumbetweenactive experimentationandreﬂexiveobservation.Thecombinedscores oneachaxisindicatewhichofthefourcategoriesoflearning stylesbestdescribesthestudent(Fig.1).

Eachstyledescribesatypeoflearningbehaviour.The diver-gentstyledescribesstudentsthatprimarilyengageinconcrete

Concrete experience Abstract conceptualization Active experimetation Reflexive Observation Assimilators Convergers Divergers P e rception axis Processing axis Accommodators

Fig.1–QuadrantModelofKolb’sLearningStyles(own

elaborationfromtheory).

thinkingandprocessinformationreﬂectively.Suchstudents arecommittedtolearningactivitiesandtrusttheirintuition. Incontrast,studentsbelongingtotheconvergentstyleprefer abstractthinkingandactiveprocessingandaremotivatedto discoverthepracticalutilityofthelearningmaterial. Assim-ilators combineabstractthinkingand reﬂectiveprocessing, preferringtolearninstages.Thesestudentsareableto com-prehend asubstantialamount ofinformationbecausethey can easily and systematically organiseit. Accommodators, however, combineconcrete thinkingand activeprocessing. Theyaremoreinvolvedinactivitiesbecausetheyenjoy tak-ing more riskswith their learningexperiences and testing

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newideas.Learningstylescanchangeovertimebecausethey adapttochangingcircumstancesandnewcognitive experi-ences.However,theseconceptscanprovideinformationabout students’ skills and learning abilities, thereby allowing for optimisationoftheeffectivenessofteachingactivities.

Kolb’slearningstyleconceptisaholistictheorydesignedto assessindividualdispositionstowardslearning.Itisusefulin avarietyofacademicspecialities,fieldsandlevels. Personal-itytype,vocationalpreferences,educationaltraining,cultural experience,andothervariablescaninfluencethisdisposition (Kolb&Kolb,2005).Researchhasshownthattheassessmentof learningstylescanhelpeducatorsdevelopteachingstrategies (Healey&Jenkins,2000;Tulbure,2011,2012)andcanbeusedto maximisetheefficacyofexperientialgroupactivities(Chavan, 2011).Intheorganisationalcontext,ithasalsobeenobserved thatlearningstylescouldhelptounderstandorganisational behaviours,suchasemployees’confidence(Yamazaki,2012), managerspersonalitycharacteristics(Li&Armstrong,2015), orcommunicationapprehension(Russ,2012).

Transfer

of

training

Theapplicationofknowledgelearnedintrainingprogrammes withintheworkplace setting isknownas transfer(Broad& Newstrom,2000;Kirkpatrick& Kirkpatrick,2007).This con-ceptwasdevelopedtoassesscontinuousprofessionaltraining programmes andevaluateswhether training materialsand skillsareappliedintheworkplace,especiallywhether work-erscaneffectivelyandregularlyusetheknowledge,skillsand attitudeslearneduponreturningtowork andevenintheir personallives(Broad&Newstrom,2000;Carpintero,2002).

Despite anincreasingconcern ofimprovementof voca-tional training programmes and their challenges to teach and assess the knowledge learned(OECD,2010), the tradi-tional systemof evaluationinformal training differs from theconceptsanddevicesavailableincontinuousprofessional developmentprogrammes.Thisdifferencecanbeattributed to the traditional processes of institutional assessment in vocationalandhighereducationandtheemphasison trans-ferenceincontinuoustraining,which,unlikeformaltraining, focusesonapplyingtheknowledgelearnedthroughtraining withintheworkplacecontext(Pérez&Rodríguez,2002).

Transfersaves asigniﬁcant amount oftime and energy becauseitfacilitatestheapplicationofknowledgeandskills learnedinanacademic settingtosimilar situations inthe workplace.Prieto(1994)usestheterm“wetpowder”toreferto theknowledgeandskillsthataworkerhasbeentaughtbuthas notlearnedhowtotransfer.Onceknowledgeandskillshave beenacquired,workersmanyencounterobstaclesto imple-mentationsuchasanunfavourableorganisationalclimateor alackofthetoolsneededtotesttheirnewskillsandabilities (Broad&Newstrom,2000;Holton,Bates,&Ruona,2000;Prieto, 1994).

Althoughthere are many models and assessment tools availabletoassesstrainingprogrammes,studiesabout trans-ferarescarcebecauseperformingfollow-upevaluationsinthe workplaceafteremployeeshavecompletedatrainingcourse iscomplexandexpensive.Thoughalternativemethodsbased on questionnaireshave been developedto assess workers’

motivationtotransferknowledgelearnedintrainingtothe workplace(e.g.,Biencinto,2004),thesemethodsareasscarce asstudiesoftransferoftraining.

Therearesomescalesproposedtomeasuretransfer(e.g.,

Feixasetal.,2013;Holtonetal.,2000;Holton,Bates,Seyler,& Carvalho,1997;Pineda&Quesada,2013;Roullier&Goldstein, 1993)composedbydifferentamountofitemsandconceptual dimensions. Ballesteros(2008) and Maya and Olivos (2012); Maya,Olivos,andPrieto(2016)whichproposeshorterand con-ceptuallycomplexoperationalizationoftransfer,asappliedin theSpanishcontext,whichhasshowngoodreliability propri-eties.

This study has the main objective of describing the relationshipbetweenstudents’learningstylesandtheir moti-vationtoengagetheirtransferoflearning,asabettertraining assessmentthansatisfactionwiththelearningactivities.

Methodology

Participants

The participants comprised 96 students from three voca-tionaltraininginstitutesinCastilla-LaMancha:IESCencibel (42%), IES JuanBosco (28%), and CIFPAguas Nuevas (30%). Thestudentsparticipatedinaseriesoflaboratorypracticums on renewable energy sourcesimplemented by the Renew-ableEnergyResearchInstituteoftheUniversityofCastilla-La Mancha,Spain.Theaverageagewas24.58(SD=5.7),andthe samplewasalmostexclusivelymale(99%).StudentsfromCIFP AguasNuevasonlyparticipatedinthesecondversionofthe programme.Itcouldbeconsideredaconvenient-intentioned sample selection processes, because we are interested in assessingaspeciﬁctrainingprogrammewithalltheir partici-pants.

Instrumentsandprocedures

Two teachinginnovationprojectswerecarriedoutovertwo consecutive years at UCLM with the support of CYTEMA (TechnologicalCampusofEnergyandtheEnvironment).Each year,theparticipantswereinvolvedinaseriesoflaboratory practicumsonrenewable energysources,whichincludeda visittoaspecialisedcompanyintherenewableenergysector, RenovaliaEnergy.

Atheorysessionwasdeliveredtoallofthepracticum par-ticipants.Thissessionintroducedthebasicprinciplesneeded tounderstandtheactivitiesincludedinthepracticum.

In laboratory practice, students tested a variety of specialisedequipmentemployedbycompaniesinthe renew-able energy sector. They experimented with equipment designed to measure windresources, bothtraditional sys-temsandthelatesttechnologicalinnovationsbasedonLiDAR and SODAR technologies (Honrubia, Vigueras-Rodríguez, & Gómez-Lázaro, 2012). Students also used equipment capa-ble of obtaining the characteristic curves of photovoltaic solarpanels(Honrubia,Ca ˜nas-Carretón,Martín-Martínez,& Gómez-Lázaro, 2013); thermal imaging cameras capableof recording images and video; power quality analysers used to recordpower system disturbances;and other laboratory

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devices,suchasprogrammablepowersources,electricalloads and instruments forrecording different variables.Between 4and 6 sessions were held annually. These sessions were organisedaccordingtothefollowingagenda:traditionalwind resourcemeasurementsystems;newsystemsformeasuring windresources;solarpanelpowercurve;powerquality anal-ysis;andappliedthermography.

Thestudentscompletedaself-administeredquestionnaire composedofseveralscales:

Learning Styles Inventory (LSI; Kolb & Kolb, 2005). This is a well-known scale whose good reliability and valid-ityhave been repeatedlydemonstrated (e.g.,Kolb &Kolb, 2012;Manolisetal.,2013;Richardson,2011).Itassesses stu-dents’learningstylesandclassiﬁesthemasaccommodators, divergers,assimilatorsorconvergers.

Ballesteros’sTransferScale.Thisscalemeasuresstudents’ motivation to engage their transfer oflearning. A partial version ofBallesteros’s TransferScale(2008) was adapted ina previous study (Olivos,Segovia, Honrubia, & Gómez, 2014)andshowedacceptablereliability(˛=.772).Thisstudy used an extended version of the scale composed of 59 items(˛=.950),towhichparticipantsrespondedonaLikert scalefrom1=stronglyagreeto4=stronglydisagree.Ballesteros suggestedthatthis scale measures 20 factors oftransfer: studenttrainingmotivation;absorptioncapacity; practical natureoftraining;relevanceofcontent;contentabout objec-tives; content about self-direction (barriers); application opportunities;mediaavailabilityorresources;supportfrom superiors(teachers);supportfrom subordinates; organisa-tionalcultureofcontinuouslearning;motivationoftrainers (tutors);abilitytoarticulateknowledge;abilitytocreate a smoothrelationship;tacitknowledge;complexknowledge; newknowledge; speciﬁc knowledge; outcome of training; transfer of training. To adapt this scale to the present study,“supportfromsubordinates”wasnotincludedinthe analysis.

Maya’sTransferScale.Thisscale,adaptedfromMaya’s ver-sion(Maya&Olivos,2012;Mayaetal.,2016),comprised21 items.Inthisstudy,thescalehadgoodreliability(˛=.948). Accordingtoitsauthor,thescalemeasurestransferinfour dimensions:teachersandfamily;intentiontoapplylearned knowledge;workenvironment;andsuperiors(teachers)and colleagues.

SatisfactionScale.Thisscalemeasuredstudents’levelof sat-isfactionwiththelearningactivitiesandwascomposedof7 items(˛=.919)thatwere assessedonascalefrom1=very badto10=very good.The itemsmeasure therelevance of the activities toacademic performance; quality of equip-ment used in the laboratory; presentation of content by universitystaff;organisationofactivities;qualityof facili-ties;satisfactionofexpectations;andgeneralassessmentof theactivities.

Studentsalsohadtheopportunitydiscusswhatthey con-sidered to be the best and worst activities in two open questionsattheendofthequestionnaire.

TheresponseswererecodiﬁedandanalysedusingSPSS20, toperformdescriptiveanalysisofmainvariables,mean com-parisons,Pearsoncorrelationsand discriminant analysisto

studytherelationbetweenlearningstylesandmotivationto transfer.

Theresearchwascarriedoutaccordingtotheprotocolsand ethicalstandardsforresearchveiledbytheViceChancellorfor ResearchandScientiﬁcAffairsoftheUniversityofCastilla-La Mancha.

Results

A descriptiveanalysis ofthedistribution oflearningstyles showedthatassimilators(54.4%)andconvergers(29.1%) pre-dominated,followedbydivergers(11.4%)andaccommodators (5.1%).

As shown inFig. 2, moststudents reported satisfaction withtheactivities,indicatingthatthetraining programmes were evaluatedpositively (M=7.6;SD=1.71).The“qualityof facilities”wasthehighest-ratedfactor(M=8.1;SD=1.68)and “relevanceoftheactivitiestoacademicperformance”wasthe lowest(M=6.9;SD=2.15).

AnANOVAwasperformedtocomparemeansof satisfac-tionaccordingtothelearningstyles,buttheresultsdidnot showanysigniﬁcantdifferences.

A bivariate Pearson correlation analysis was conducted to determinethe relationshipbetweentransferand partic-ipants’ satisfactionwiththeactivities(Table1). Theresults showedpositiveandmoderatelystrongcorrelationsbetween Ballesteros’sTransferScale(r=.708;p<.01)andMaya’s Trans-ferScale(r=.706;p<.01)and“therelevanceoftheactivitiesto academicperformance”,asexpected.

Severaladditionalpositivemoderatelystrongcorrelations werefound.Thestrongestcorrelationswerefoundbetween “therelevanceoftheactivitiestoacademicperformance”and Ballesteros’s“mediaavailabilityorresources”(r=.661;p<.01); “supportfromsuperiors(teachers)”(r=.643;p<.01); “organi-sationalcultureofcontinuouslearning”(r=.649;p<.01);“tacit knowledge”(r=.669;p<.01);and“transferoftraining”(r=.651;

p<.01) dimensions.CorrelateswerealsofoundwithMaya’s “intentiontoapplylearnedknowledge”(r=.729;p<.01) and “workenvironment”(r=.688;p<.01)dimensions.

Moderately strong positive correlations were alsofound between“satisfactionofexpectations”andBallesteros’s “out-comeoftraining”(r=.617;p<.01) and “transferoftraining” (r=.690;p<.01)dimensions.

Only one association yielded asigniﬁcant negative cor-relation: the relationship between Ballesteros’s “speciﬁc knowledge”dimensionandthe“qualityoffacilities”(r=−.522;

p<.01)factor.

Next, ananalysiswas conductedtodeterminethe rela-tionshipbetweenthefourtransferdimensions,asdependent variable,andthelearningstylesasindependent.

Table2showstheresultsofastepwisediscriminant anal-ysis, which revealed that two functions, “Student training motivation”(Function1)and“mediaavailabilityorresources” (Function2),signiﬁcantly explainedthemodel. Theformer explained 97.1% ofthe modelvariance and the latteronly 2.9%.Thefullmodeldistinguishesbetweenthegroups(Wilks’

=.459;2₌_21.028;_Sig.₌_.002)._However,_the_second_function

aloneisnotadequatetodistinguishthegroups(Wilks’=.968;

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1 Relevance of the activities to academic performance 6.9 7.6 7.7 7.3 8.1 7.2 7.6 Quality of equipment used in the laboratory Presentation of content by university staff Organization of activities Quality of facilities Satisfaction of expectations General assessment of the activities 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10

Fig.2–Averageevaluationofsatisfactionwiththeactivities.

Theclassiﬁcation procedure adjustedto the size ofthe groupsclassiﬁedamorethanequitabledistributionin56.4%of thecases.However,pairwisegroupcomparisonsandcentroid analysisshowed thatonlyFunction 1clearlydistinguished

betweenassimilatorsandconvergers.Toalesserextent, Func-tion2distinguishesbetweenaccommodatorsandconvergers andbetweendivergersandassimilators.Theseresultssuggest thatassimilators,morethanconvergers,believethatstudent

Table1–Bivariatecorrelationbetweentransferandparticipants’satisfactionwiththeactivities.

1 2 3 4 5 6 7

TransferBallesteros **_.708 *_.382 *_.472 **_.592 _.250 **_.526 **_.618

Practicalnatureoftraining **_.523 _.123 _.354 _.368 _.087 _.285 *_.469

Relevanceofcontent **_.511 **_.514 _.383 *_.436 _.253 _.272 *_.437

Contentsaboutobjectives **_.574 _.282 *_.476 **_.536 _.058 _.157 _.378

Contentabout self-direction(barriers) .330 .288 .370 .295 .046 −.030 .271 Applicationopportunities *_.487 _.226 _.354 *_.489 _.071 _.230 _.322 Mediaavailabilityor resources **_.661 _.176 _.307 **_.541 _.280 **_.539 **_.631

Supportfromsuperiors (teachers) **_.643 _.299 *_.420 **_.564 _.109 _.373 *_.408 Organisationalcultureof continuouslearning **_.649 _.140 _.318 **_.511 _.180 **_.637 **_.624 Motivationoftrainers (tutors) .324 *_.482 **_.511 _.328 *_.429 _.148 _.304 Abilitytoarticulate knowledge **_.498 _.303 *_.458 **_.527 _.188 *_.433 *_.392

Abilitytocreateasmooth relationship .169 .130 .218 .281 −.205 .185 .000 Tacitknowledge **_.669 **_.546 _.289 **_.497 *_.392 **_.497 **_.567 Complexknowledge .301 .139 .245 .274 .299 .280 .375 Newknowledge .240 −.130 .093 .184 −.385 −.124 −.085 Speciﬁcknowledge −.214 *_−.390 _−.003 _−.132 **_−.522 _−.194 _−.244 Absorptioncapacity *_.465 _.330 _.269 _.267 _.366 *_.440 **_.662

Studenttrainingmotivation .349 *_.412 _.308 _.283 _.249 _.283 *_.433

Outcomeoftraining **_.554 *_.415 **_.529 **_.547 *_.399 **_.617 **_.611

Transferoftraining **_.651 _.372 _.374 **_.559 _.295 **_.690 **_.632

TransferMaya **_.706 *_.461 **_.492 **_.548 _.201 *_.439 **_.569

Teachersandfamily **_.568 *_.456 *_.401 *_.478 _.174 _.365 *_.388

Intentiontoapplylearned knowledge

**_.729 *_.477 *_.486 **_.536 _.177 _.365 **_.597

Workenvironment **_.688 _.369 _.354 *_.444 _.283 *_.476 **_.605

Superiors(teachers)and colleagues

*_.485 _.239 **_.515 *_.456 _.058 _.365 *_.456

Note:1.Relevanceoftheactivitiestoacademicperformance;2.Qualityofequipmentusedinthelaboratory;3.Presentationofcontentby universitystaff;4.Organisationofactivities;5.Qualityoffacilities;6.Satisfactionofexpectations;7.Generalassessmentoftheactivities.

∗ _p_<_.05 ∗∗ _p_<_.01

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Table2–Stepwisediscriminantanalysis,pairwisegroupcomparisons,coefﬁcientsandcentroids.

Pairwisegroupcomparisons %ofvariance Wilkis Centroids

1 2 3 4 Function1 1.Accommodators .886 .000 3.942 97.1% **_.459 _1.270 2.Divergers .886 2.577 2.191 −.675 3.Assimilators .000 2.577 **_12.341 _.740 4.Convergers 3.942 2.191 **_12.341 _−1.475 Function2 1.Accommodators 3.046 .419 **_5.696 _2.9% _.968 _−.423 2.Divergers 3.046 *_4.291 _1.242 _.238 3.Assimilators .419 *_4.291 ***_11.590 _.033 4.Convergers **_5.696 _1.242 ***_11.590 _−.159 ∗ _p_<_.05. ∗∗ _p_<_.01. ∗∗∗_p_<_.001.

motivation signiﬁcantly affects transferof learning gained throughtheoflaboratorypracticums.

Theseresultsagreewithstudents’responsestothe open-endedquestions.Participantsmentionedthattheactivities’ practicalityandtheUniversity’sfacilitieswerethebestaspects ofthe training and identiﬁedthe extentofthe theoretical explanationsandlackofopportunitiesforindividualpractice astheworstaspects.

Discussion

and

conclusion

The positive and moderately strong correlations found betweentransferdimensionsandactivityassessments sug-gest that a positive evaluation is associated with high motivation to transfer the knowledge gained through the trainingexperience.Thespeciﬁccorrelationsoftransferwith “mediaavailabilityorresources”,“workenvironment”, “sup-port from superiors (teachers)”, “organisational culture of continuous learning”, “tacit knowledge” and “intention to applyknowledge”show theimportanceof:(a)the environ-mentalconditionsoftheinstitutionstowhichknowledgeis transferred;(b) therole ofthe teachers asmentors of stu-dents’learningprocesses;(c)andthecontenttransmittedin thetrainingprogramme.

Thedifferenceindistributionaccordingtolearningstyles isalimitationforthestatisticalanalysis.However, predom-inance of assimilators and convergers among students is consistentwiththerelationshipbetweenlearningstylesand vocationalinterests;theselearningstylesaretypicallyclosely relatedwiththepreferenceforcertaintypesofcareers(e.g.,

McCarthy,2010).

Despitetheabove,discriminantanalysisrevealedaclear distinctionbetweenassimilatorsandconvergerswithregard tostudentmotivation.Thisresultindicatesthatstudentsthat tendtoprocessinformationthroughreﬂexiveobservationare moredisposedtotransfertheirlearningbecausetheyaremore personallymotivatedthanthosethattendtoengageinactive experimentationprocesses. Convergersaremorepragmatic andprefertoconductdirectexperimentsthantolistento lec-tures.Infact,oneofthemostnegativecommentsaboutthe learningactivitieswasrelatedtotheextentofthetheoretical

explanationsandlackofopportunitiestoengageinindividual practicewiththeuniversity’sequipment.

Therefore,theusefulnessoftheactivitiesprovidedbythe universitywasperceiveddifferentlybystudentswithdifferent learningstyles.Thisinformationcouldbeusedtoplanmore effectivetrainingactivitiesandassesstransferoflearnings.

Thus, the University provided an opportunity for voca-tional students toparticipateinlaboratory experimentsby giving them access to facilities, equipment and profes-sionals that were unavailable in their institutions. Indeed, these opportunities were highly valued by the students. Furthermore, as literatureshows, learning styles could be modiﬁcationbypracticaltraining(e.g.,Bitran,Zú ˜niga,Pedrals, Padilla,&Mena,2012;Mitchell,James,&D’Amore,2015;van den Berg,2015), therebyexpandingopportunitiestoensure transferoflearningstothetrainingprocess.

Nevertheless,theresultsofthisstudyshouldbeinterpreted withcautionduetotheirlimitations.First,the samplesize prevents the results from being generalised to all regional vocational students. As we mentioned before,future stud-iesshouldusesamplesbalancedacrosseachlearningstyle. Future researchshouldalsobeconductedtodeterminethe causal effectsofthe practicumdesignonstudents’ evalua-tionsoftheactivitiesaccordingtotheirlearningstyle,though the results reported in this study are consistent with the prevailingtheoriesandwithotherempiricalstudieslinking satisfactionwithinstructionalandlearningstyles(Gurpinar, Kemal,Mamakli,&Aktekin,2010).Theresultsalsocorroborate otherstudiesthathaveidentiﬁedindividualandsituational characteristicsassigniﬁcantpredictorsoftrainingmotivation andoutcomes(Colquitt,LePine,&Noe,2000).Theresults sug-gestwaystoimprovetheplanningofthesetypesoftraining activities.

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