The results that we enclose are based on a three years research[1]. The research question that guides the work we present here is this: Do students with better metacognitive strategies have better learning strategies than their peers and do they also prefer deep learning approaches?

The Bologna process of convergence, developed by EU countries, involves, among other things, reconfiguring the roles of teachers and students. Underlying learning theories defend a university pedagogy focused on learning/learner-centered (student-centered learning, learning paradigm) (Attard, Di Ioio, Geven & Santa, 2010, Biggs, 2005; Kember, 2009; Monereo and Pozo, 2003; Samuelowicz & Bain, 2001).

In this model student learning is the key element of the process, but there is also recognition of the changed role of the teacher (Attard et al., 2010). In this model the teacher must act as a mediator, as a designer of learning environments that promote the independent learning of students -which requires teaching skills-, compared to traditional models where the teacher is focused on the knowledge of content and conveying that knowledge to students.

The development of this model also requires a change in the role of the student, from being a “receiver” and” repeater” of the knowledge transmitted by the teacher, to being a subject actively involved in the learning process. In this model students must inquire, question, develop, investigate, make personal contributions, they must be actively involved making the learning process significant (Machemer and Crawford, 2007). They must able to lead the process, establish their own learning paths, self-regulate and self-evaluate (Hannafin, 2012).

This is a model that demands self-regulated learners (Attard et al., 2010).

 A self-regulated learner (Pintrich, 2000, Zimmerman, 2002) effectively manages the learning strategies, including cognitive and affective-motivational components of support ("to want"), metacognitive components ("to make decisions and to evaluate") and cognitive components ("to be able to”). These are the three components of the model of Weinstein, Husman and Dierking (2000) -"will", "self-regulation" and "skill"- on which researchers basically agree (Yip, 2012).  It is essential that students develop metacognitive strategies so that they can act as self-regulated learners.

In this context, it is relevant to verify whether the domain of metacognitive strategies also involves better management of other learning strategies (motivational, affective, contextual control strategies, information search strategies and information processing strategies) as well as a deep learning approach. This is the objective that we address in this work.

To pursue this objective we are collecting data from students of three universities in the city of Valencia (Spain). If the results confirm our assumptions, we can offer to other Spanish and European universities relevant data and training proposals of interest. We know that the learning-centered model helps the student to improve their learning strategies, to increase the deep approach to learning and to improve their performance (Gargallo, Garfella Perez & Fernandez, 2010). If, as we think, metacognitive strategies are critical in the process, the emphasis should be on developing metacognitive strategies in order to promote the strategic learning and the deep approach to learning.

In addition, there is convincing evidence that learning strategies influence student achievement (Pintrich, 1995; Gargallo, Suárez-Rodríguez & Pérez-Pérez, 2009), and also learning approaches: (Gargallo, 2008; Valle, Gonzalez Cabanach Núñez, Suárez Piñeiro & Rodríguez, 2000), so the interest of this work is clear.

[1] It is the "Learning-centered methodologies at the university. Design, implementation and assessment” , approved by the Spanish Economy and Competitiveness’ Ministry into the National Basic Research Program, 2001 (2013-2015) (Financing Plan E, PGE), directed by Professor Ph.D. Bernardo Gargallo (code EDU2012-32725).

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