The Relationship Between Learning Style and Undergraduate Nursing Students’ Academic Achievement in School of Nursing and Midwifery, Tehran University of Medical Sciences, Tehran, Iran

Abstract

Background: The Learning style has been the focus of numerous studies, but it remains complex and affected by many factors. Nursing students should learn large quantities of theoretical content in a short period of time. Objective: The Relationship between Learning style and undergraduate nursing students’ Academic Achievement in School of nursing and midwifery, Tehran University of Medical Sciences, Tehran, Iran Methods: A correlational cross sectional study was conducted. The subjects of this study were Undergraduate nursing students 232 from school grades of years attending to school of nursing and midwifery of Tehran University of Medical Sciences. Data was collected from students through an anonymous learning style questionnaire. The questionnaire was divided into three sections including (a) demographic profile (b) Kolb’s Learning Style Inventory (c) Academic achievement. An initial version of the questionnaire was piloted on a small group of nursing students as the context was validated by a panel of expertise in nursing education. All ethical considerations were applied in this study. Data analysis was carried out by using the latest version of the statistical software package SPSS (Version-21). Descriptive and analytical statistical test were used to analyze the data. Results: A total of 232 participated in study of relationship between learning styles, and undergraduate nursing students’ academic achievement. One hundred –Forty three participants were female (61.6%), and 89 respondents were male (38.4%); 60.8% were between 20 and 25 years, 33.6% were <20 years, and 5.6% were >25 years old. The most frequency learning style of students was Abstract Conceptualization (37.5%). In addition, Active Experiential (30.17%), Reflective Observation (19.83%) and Concrete Experiencing (12.5%) were in the next order in LS of students. The majority of subjects (52.8%) their academic achievements were at level of Good (the Median score were between (13-16). There was no significant relationship between Learning style and Academic Achievement (P> 0.05). There was a relationship between Learning styles and gender (P<0.05). There was a relationship between learning style and academic level (P=0.041). Conclusion: Not all students are self-directed, and this study suggests that mature students are more self-directed than that entering nurse education direct from high school. Nurses’ educators need to assess the Learning style and preferences of their students in order to determine the appropriateness of Self-Directed in learning.