How learning takes place in first year university students at the start and end of the academic year?

Research on approaches to learning from the paradigm of SAL (Student Approaches to Learning) enables us to know how students carry out learning. In the present study the objectives proposed are twofold; 1) to understand the learning approaches used by university students when commencing their first year of study and at the end of it and 2) to identify aspects of such approaches that can contribute to the understanding and improvement of teaching. The study is based on the longitudinal quantitative analysis over the period of an academic year, during which the learning approaches of first year students are measured on its commencement and termination. In addition, a further quantitative analysis is carried out at the end of the academic year based on open questions related to learning approaches and the educational context. The instrument used for this longitudinal study on 188 students at the Faculty of Humanities and Education of Mondragon Unibertsitatea is the R-SPQ-2F (Biggs et al., 2001), adapted into Basque and validated (Garcia, 2011). The results show that while at the start of the course a specific learning approach does not prevail, over the course of their first year the students evolve positively, increasing their capacity for in-depth focus and reducing their surface approach to learning. This study is part of a larger longitudinal study on the same students extending until their graduation in their fourth and final year, which is currently undergoing data analysis and the results will be forthcoming.