The Kolb Learning Styles of History Undergraduates in Turkiye

Abstract

This study investigated the learning styles of history students depending on some demographic variables. The sample consisted of 1849 students from seven history-teaching (n=875) and eight history departments (n=974) of ten universities in different regions of Türkiye. Data were collected using a personal information form and the Kolb Learning Styles Inventory (KLSI-3). According to Kolb's classification of four learning styles, participants had assimilating, converging, diverging, and accommodating learning styles, respectively. According to Kolb's classification of nine learning styles, seven in ten participants had balancing, reflecting, thinking, and analyzing learning styles. The study investigated whether the variables of “university,” “major,” “gender,” “age,” and “grade level” affected participants’ “learning modes” [concrete experience (CE), reflective observation (RO), abstract conceptualization (AC), active experimentation (AE)], “perceiving information” (CE-AC), and “processing information” (RO-AE) scores. The results showed that the variable of “university” affected what learning styles participants adopted. Participants from seven universities adopted balancing learning styles, while those from the other universities adopted reflecting learning styles. The variable "major" affected participants' CE, RO, and AC scores. The variable "gender" affected their RO, AE, and "processing information" scores. The variable "age" affected their CE, AC, AE, and "perceiving information" scores. The variable "grade level" affected all their scores except for nine learning styles and CE.