Learning Style Preferences Among Students Of Various Disciplines

Abstract

‘Learn to communicate and communicate to learn’.Communication forms basics of expression, life and learning of every individual. Learning style is individual preference of absorbing, processing, understanding, interpreting and retrieving information. Visuals form a critical part of communication, learning and marketing. Basic learning style theory discuss Visual , Auditory and Kinaesthetic (VAK) styles of learning. Few other contemporary theories of learning style have taken VAK as a base.

The current study was conducted to identify learning style preference of Full-time students and to simultaneously analyse the relationship between learning style of a student with their gender, ethnic background, age, work experience and educational qualification. This study was conducted by circulating an appropriate two-part questionnaire to full-time students pursuing courses in the field of Science, arts and management. The first part comprised of the Learning style survey with 44 item questions that could measure the four learning style dimensions while the second part comprised of questions pertaining to Gender, Age, Nationality, Degree pursuing, and Work experience. Findings from the paper showed that Age, Gender, Work experience and Nationality influenced significantly the learning style preference of students. Also, higher education learners with more than 4 years of work experience displayed balance learning style while students with fewer years of work experience showed strong or moderate preference for at least one learning style. Industries and Educational institutions today have realised the importance of effective learning. Companies are investing on creating a robust learning atmosphere to improve their talent management system. Educational institutions have realised that a "One Size fits all" approach cannot be considered while educating the newer generation, and therefore finding ways to develop an effective pedagogy. Analysing learning style preference can therefore be helpful in improving this process