Cognitive Development, Learning Strategies and Academic Performance in The First Stage of University Education

Abstract

Undergraduate training continues to be a challenge to train entrepreneurial specialists with research-oriented attitudes. Depending on the level of func-tional development of the brain, the level of learning will be different in re-lation to chronological age. The ACRA learning strategies scales (Román & Gallego, 2001) allow verifying the frequency, type of strategy and specific technique used by students, the coding strategies being the most important for effective performance throughout life; although there is an abbreviated and validated version of this scale applicable only at the university level by De la Fuente and Justicia (2003); In the study, the 2001 version of Román & Gallego is applied to analyze, according to age, the correspondence between the learning strategies used by the students with their academic performance, as well as to verify if there is a difference by gender, during a period of three years . Technical sheets and final grades of the students were also ap-plied; a multiple linear regression analysis; it is a mixed type investigation. It is observed that the Coding strategies are not used very frequently. In Aca-demic Performance (AR), only 7.85% of the students obtained a final score of 14 or more, the use score coinciding with scales that measure the same learning strategies. The type of strategies and the age (18-19 years) registered influence the RA and only the Acquisition strategies show a slight relation-ship with the RA. There is no gender relationship.