Predominant cognitive style in nutrition and dietetics students, Universidad Nacional de Colombia - Bogotá, 2009

Background. Cognitive styles have been studied since the first half of the 20th century. In spite of this, most research has been carried out on elementary- and middleschool students; few studies have been concerned with higher education students, especially regarding students studying nutrition and dietetics. Objectives. Determining predominant cognitive learning styles amongst students studying nutrition and dietetics in the Universidad Nacional de Colombia so as to identify how they are may be matched with explicit cognitive skills in such academic programme. Materials and methods. The masked figures test was used for determining cognitive style in the field independence-dependence dimension. A sociocultural survey was conducted and self-reporting questionnaires were used for identifying learning and study preferences. Results. 40.4% of the students were characterized as being field-independent and 33.6% field-dependent; the rest had an intermediate cognitive style. Very fieldindependent students stated that they only preferred academic activities. Field-independent ones nearly always referred to preferring artistic and sporting-type activities, organizing their workplaces before starting to study, almost never making summaries and considering that traditional taught classes did not facilitate learning. Fielddependent students preferred listening to music, chatting on-line and watching television whilst they were studying; it is worth pointing out that 74% stated that they almost always prepared their evaluations/tests bearing only that in mind which had been suggested by the teacher. Conclusions. Field-independent cognitive learning style predominated amongst students involved in the study. Being reflective, analytical, critical and creative (explicit skills in a nutrition student's profile) were more developed in students in whom this type of style predominated, whilst others, such as working as part of a team and social sensitivity, predominated in fielddependent individuals.