Learning style preferences of female undergraduate students in the U.S. and possible associations with selected ‘hard’ vs. ‘soft’ academic majors

Babayev, Roland Studies have shown that demotivation and dissatisfaction can occur when learning style preferences and teaching methods are misaligned. Taking student learning styles into consideration as an instructor is therefore important. While many learning style preference studies have been conducted globally, female undergraduate students in the U.S. have had limited focus. A quantitative associational study was conducted to determine the learning style preferences of female undergraduate students in the U.S. and possible associations with 'hard' vs. 'soft' academic major selection. The Felder-Soloman Index of Learning Styles inventory was utilized to identity the learning style preferences of 189 research participants. Biglan's Taxonomy of academic disciplines was used to categorize academic disciplines as 'hard' and 'soft'. The findings demonstrated that female undergraduate students in the U.S. preferred Sensing, Visual, and Sequential learning styles with a balance across the Active-Reflective learning style dimension. This overall preference for Sensing, Visual, and Sequential learning was seen across both 'hard' and 'soft' academic major groups. A Chi-Square Test of Independence was conducted to determine a possible association between 'hard' vs. 'soft' academic discipline selection and learning style preferences. A Mann-Whitney U test was also applied. The tests revealed no significant association between any of the learning style preference dimensions and academic major category. These findings are of consequence as they quantitatively demonstrate that instructors in higher education should not design courses under the presumption that students in certain academic tracks prefer to learn in specific ways. Instead, pluralism and diversity in teaching strategies should be adopted to facilitate deeper learning irrespective of academic major type.

Grantor dc:publisher

Alverno College

Year dc:date

2023

Author dc:creator

• Babayev, Roland

• Learning
• Cognitive styles
• Women college students
• Learning style preferences
• Felder-Soloman
• Biglan’s Taxonomy

Statement dc:rights

• These materials may be used by individuals and libraries for personal use, research, teaching (including distribution to classes), or for any fair use as defined by U.S. Copyright Law.

Language dc:language

English

Repository record dc:identifier

https://alverno.omeka.net/items/show/887

OAI identifier oai:identifier

oai:alverno.omeka.net:887