Students' questions: building a bridge between Kolb's learning styles and approaches to learning

Abstract

Purpose – The purpose of this study is to identify the types of questions that students ask during the learning of chemistry; discuss the role of students' questions in the process of constructing knowledge, and investigate the relationship between students' questions, approaches to learning, and learning styles.Design/methodology/approach – The questions raised by 100 first‐year chemistry students in Science and Engineering courses at the University of Aveiro, Portugal, were collected. These students were invited to complete Kolb's Learning Styles Inventory (LSI) and were observed during diverse class activities. Ten of these students were then selected for interview.Findings – The paper finds that the data enable the placement of students at different stages of learning development, at an “acquisition”, “specialisation” or “integration” phase. The ten interviews confirm the results of the LSI survey, and indicate that these students show either “deep” or “surface” approaches to learning, with evidence o...