Learning styles are habitual cognitive and affective patterns that, through various means, determine how each individual interacts in learning scenarios or environments and are part of a comprehensive approach that should be considered when organizing learning. Research in teaching and learning has shown that assessing students’ learning preferences is important because students have different learning preferences, based on which teachers can relate their teaching methods to students’ learning methods. The VARK learning style model introduced by Fleming includes a questionnaire that determines a person’s sensory modality preferences in learning. This model classifies students into four different learning modes: visual (V), auditory (A), reading/writing (R), and kinesthetic (K). The VARK model establishes a number of principles before considering learning styles. These principles state that a student's preferred learning patterns significantly influence student learning and behavior. Furthermore, a student's specific preferred learning style should be supported by appropriate teaching strategies.
In line with global trends, growing number of educational institutions in Saudi Arabia are developing their curricula based on the feedback and suggestions from their students to help improve the quality of teaching. My colleagues and I aimed to test the null hypotheses that there are no significant differences in preferred learning styles as measured by modality scores among Saudi female nursing students. The current study results are expected to be used to develop appropriate teaching methods to improve their academic performance. The culturally adapted Arabic version of the VARK questionnaire was administered among n=124 Bachelor of Science Nursing Bridging (BSNB) students and second to fourth year Bachelor of Science Nursing (BSN) students.
The results of the current study are consistent with an earlier study by Fleming and Baume, who found that people's learning styles depend on their preferences for absorbing, processing, understanding, and retaining information, indicating the importance of such research among students. We found that nursing students who preferred visual learning had a significantly different learning style than those who preferred auditory and kinesthetic learning styles. In contrast, there was insufficient evidence to draw the same conclusion for students who preferred the reading/writing modality.
For decades, teacher-centered learning and curriculum design have been the mainstream approach to education in most educational institutions both in Saudi Arabia and around the world. However, evidence suggests that teacher-centered learning results in a number of disadvantages for students as they are less invested in their own knowledge. Accordingly, as we found in this study, in line with previous evidence, new improvements are needed in the education of future healthcare providers. This requires a deeper understanding of how nursing students learn effectively. Prioritizing student learning preferences will lead to teachers being responsible for individualized curriculum design, i.e., adopting a student-centered approach that allows students to interact in providing feedback on curriculum design. Providing multiple modalities in teaching procedures has been shown to increase student retention in learning. Furthermore, there is a significant educational benefit for nursing students in the system because teaching in a preferred learning style maximizes students' ability to learn.
We suggest that nursing students’ learning preferences can form the basis for adaptive learning, in which students and faculty share mutual responsibility for learning materials that are tailored to student input. Further research is needed to examine the relationship between learning style preferences and learning outcomes, including a larger sample size and representation of both genders, male and female. We also recommend that nurse educators be responsible for developing an individualized curriculum if they prioritize student learning preferences, which means using a student-centered approach that encourages students to engage by offering input into curriculum development. Deep learning can only occur when both parties are committed to a designed and structured learning experience.