The research question that guides the work we present here is this: Do students with better affective strategies have better learning strategies than their peers?

The results that we enclose are based on a three years research[1].

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 Ioiro, 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 professor (Attard et al., 2010). Professors must act as mediators, as designers 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).  

In this context, it is relevant to verify whether the domain of affective strategies (called “affective components” in the LSUSQ (Gargallo, Suárez-Rodríguez & Pérez-Pérez, 2009), which include physical and emotional state, and control of the anxiety) also involves better management of other learning strategies (motivational, meta-cognitive, contextual control strategies, information search strategies and information processing strategies). 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 and to improve their performance (Gargallo, Garfella Perez & Fernandez, 2010). If, as we think, affective strategies are critical in the process, the emphasis should be on developing these affective strategies in order to promote the strategic learning.

This is a relevant topic from a pedagogical point of view because learning strategies influence academic performance, which has been proven in different studies: Camarero, Martin & Herrero (2000), Cano & Justicia (1993), Gargallo, Garfella, Pérez, y Fernández (2010), Gargallo, Suarez-Rodríguez & Pérez-Pérez (2009), Pintrich, Smith, Garcia & Mackeachie (1991), Valle & Rodriguez (1998).  This is because they are one of the most powerful explicative constructs of the learning processes of students, 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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