The Relationship Between Learning Styles and Baseline Characteristics of Postgraduate Students at Kerman University of Medical Sciences During 2013 - 2014

Abstract

Background:The most spectacular progress of the mankind is made by learning. One of the most effective factors that help learning among students is their learning styles. According to individual differences, people use various learning styles; therefore, it is of utmost importance to know the learning style of learners and find what reasons can affect it, in order to train them. Objectives: The purpose of this study was to identify the relationship between the learning styles of postgraduate students in Kerman University of Medical Sciences and their baseline characteristics.Patients and Methods: In this cross-correlation study, 400 postgraduate students of Kerman University of Medical Sciences were randomly selected. To collect data, the Kolb's learning styles questionnaire was distributed among the participants. The validity of the instruments was determined in terms of content validity, and the reliability was gained through internal consistency methods. The Cronbach's alpha coefficient was found to be 0.75; Descriptive statistics (percentage, frequency, mean, and standard deviation) and analytical tests (ANOVA and chi-square) were performed to analyze the data. Results: The findings indicated a significant difference between learning styles; most postgraduate students at Kerman University of Medical Sciences used the converging learning style. Totally, 51%, 31%, 10%, and 8% of the participants used convergent, assimilator, accommodator, and divergent learning styles, respectively. No statistically significant relationship was found between the learning styles and baseline variables.Conclusions: According to the results of this study, the most dominant learning style of postgraduate students is the convergent style. These findings are useful for learning system. Therefore, the results of this study and similar research on students' learning styles in other universities can be considered as a baseline for the identification of learning styles as well as planning for them.