Preferences of Learning Styles among Non-Accounting Students in Accounting Subject

Abstract

Learning style is a crucial component in encouraging quality teaching and promoting effective learning. Every student possesses distinct learning objectives, prior knowledge, cognitive ability, and cognitive style. Therefore, it is essential to understand students’ learning style preferences for high-quality and effective teaching and learning methods. This paper aims to examine the variation of learning styles among non-accounting students from one of the higher learning institutions in Melaka, Malaysia. Data were gathered from self-administered questionnaires given to students enrolled in diploma courses during financial accounting class sessions. The survey received a response from a total of 398 students. This study discovered that most students use an unimodal learning style in their studies, regardless of whether the subject is theoretical or calculative. However, the distribution of learning style modalities is significantly different between male and female respondents. Overall, the visual learning style was discovered as the most dominant among male and female students in learning accounting subjects through seeing or observing visual materials. Hence, it is vital to understand how students’ learning style affects their acquisition of knowledge, which could provide useful insights into designing teaching strategies concerning the profiles of the students and enhancing the teaching-learning process.