Abstract
This study has been carried out with the aim of researching dominant learning styles of the students studying at the biology departments of the faculty of science or the faculty of arts and sciences as well as the dominant learning styles of the prospective biology teachers studying at the faculty of education of universities in Turkey, by taking certain demographics (department, faculty, gender, and grade) as basis. In this context, the sample of this study consists of the students studying at the biology teaching departments of faculties of education from 5 universities in Turkey and the students studying at the biology department of science faculties or sciences and arts faculties from 8 universities. In this study, 1255 students in total volunteered to answer Kolb's Learning Styles Inventory (KLSI-3), which has been used as an assessment tool. Evaluating the findings of the study in a general sense, it has been detected that the learning style of most students is absorbing and discriminating and that the percentage distribution of the students whose learning styles are reviewing or reflecting is much lower. It has been understood that the difference between the learning styles of the prospective biology teachers and the learning styles of the biology department students in Turkey is not statistically significant. There is not a significant relationship among the learning styles of the students studying at the biology department based on their class levels, however, such a significant relationship is observed among the prospective biology teachers based on their class levels. It is observed that the relationship among learning styles and other demographics is not significant.
Highlights
As it is revealed in the results of many researches, there is a different path followed by each student in the process of obtaining and processing information
The students studying at the biology departments and the prospective biology teachers studying at the biology teaching departments consist of the sample of this study
A personal information form has been used in order to determine the demographical properties of biology students participating in the research, the third edition of Kolb Learning Style Inventory (KLSI-3) developed by David Kolb, has been used in order to determine the dominant learning styles of the students
Summary
As it is revealed in the results of many researches, there is a different path followed by each student in the process of obtaining and processing information. The ones adopting diverging learn the best when they are extensively informed and when they are able to perform observation on the subject to be learned; the ones adopting assimilating learn the best when theories having a concrete logic regarding the subject are presented to them; the ones adopting converging learn the best when environments in which they can implement the concepts and theories regarding the subject are provided them; and the ones adopting accommodating learn the best when they experience the subject to be learned or do it in person In this context, while implementing the learning cycle of Kolb in the courses, it is required to organize the learning and teaching environments by taking into account of the learning characteristics of the students with different learning styles [26, 27, 28, 29]. Do the learning styles of biology students differ significantly based on the variables of department, faculty, grade and gender?
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