Assessing Teaching Methods for Health Care Management Students Based on Kolb Theory

Abstract

Background: Determination of the individual differences and students’ learning style are essential factors in the selection of proper teaching method which leads to effective learning and suitable programming in the educational system. Objectives: The present study aimed to determine learning styles of health care management students and then preferred teaching methods based on their styles in Tehran University of Medical Sciences. Patients and Methods: The present research was a descriptive, cross-sectional study that conducted in 2012. The study population was health care management students and we select them by sampling enumeration method (response rate 87%). The tool of the research was Kolb learning style questionnaire that includes 12 questions. We distributed the questionnaires among the students to answer the questions. After completing this task, we collected the questionnaires and analyzed the data based on the Learning Style Inventory (LSI) guide by SPSS software. Results: The prevalent learning styles of the students were as follows: assimilating with 63 followers (51%), then convergent with 56 (45%), next accommodating with 2 (1.26%), and finally divergent with 2 (1.26%). The average age of students was 20.8 ± 2.4 years. There was no significant correlation between demographic variables and learning styles. Conclusions: The findings of this study can be useful in competency development of health care management students. This approach paves the way towards effective and practical learning for these students to prepare them for opportunities in their future market job.