Abstract

CASTANEDA-FIGUEIRAS, Sandra; PENALOSA-CASTRO, Eduardo  and  AUSTRIA-CORRALE, Fernando. Complex learning challenge to higher education. Investigación educ. médica [online]. 2012, vol.1, n.3, pp.140-145. ISSN 2007-5057.

This article review the need to reform structures and forms of organization at national universities to adapt to the challenges of a changing world where developments in science and technology, as well as access and distribution of information through the Internet, impact human capital formation and requires universities training more qualified human resources. From the review of the construct "Complex Learning", this article provides a global perspective on its main components and, by way of illustration, we present an empirical national structurally modeled cognitive mechanisms (beliefs and cognitive strategies) and self-regulatory (attributional and motivational) variables of the learner, content and context (presence or virtual) that shaped the psychological theoretical study. The results showed that learning was generated by complex interactions between these variables where: the implementation of unsuccessful students was predicted by naive epistemological beliefs and poor cognitive strategies - self-regulatory, whereas successful students was by self-regulatory strategies and cognitive strategies that allow students to be "active agent" of their own knowledge, as well as reflective epistemological beliefs about knowledge and the way they are learning. With regard to the context of instruction, it was confirmed that learning is most influenced by the instructional method used than the face or virtual context used. The effects of the interaction content - context showed more and better learning when students used self-regulatory strategies relating to the person-based context, and self-regulation of materials for the virtual context, also identified a trend in which perceptual contents were learned better online. On this basis, we discuss implications of this research to other disciplines.

Keywords : Complex learning; personal epistemology; self-regulated learning; cognitive strategies.