Learning Styles and Learning Self-Efficacy of Nursing Students at the Royal Thai Navy College of Nursing, Naval Medical Department

Abstract

The study was a descriptive research aiming at studying the learning styles and self-efficacy of 177 nursing students studying in the first year to the fourth year in the academic year 2012 at the Royal Thai Navy College of Nursing, Naval Medical Department. The variables in the study were experimental variables which were level of current study, hometown, willingness to enroll and learning achievement, and dependent variables which were 1) learning styles and 2) self-efficacy. The research tool used in the study was personal information questionnaire, Felder and Solomon's Index of Learning Styles Questionnaire, and self-efficacy measurement model. The data were then analyzed using One-way ANOVA and Chi-Square. The results were as follows: 1) Most of the nursing students were sensing learners in perception dimension (89.8 percent) whilethe rest of them were intuitive learners (10.2 per cent), and their self-efficacy was quite high (X = 3.49, S.D. = .38), 2).Year of current study was found significantly associated with self-efficacy at .05 level, 3) There was no significant association in learning styles and self-efficacy among students withdifferent background, consisting of hometown, willingness to enroll and learning achievement.