Title: Students' learning styles and appropriate teaching methods: experience from Iran

Authors: Reza Movahedi; Mehrdad Pouya

Addresses: Agricultural Extension and Education Department, Bu-Ali Sina University, Hamedan 6517833131, Iran ' Agricultural Extension and Education Department, Bu-Ali Sina University, Hamedan 6517833131, Iran

Abstract: This study was aimed at determining students' learning styles and its relationship with university teaching methods using a survey methodology. Samples of the study consisted of 194 students at both graduate and undergraduate levels from an agricultural college in Iran. Data collecting tool was a questionnaire with three parts which validated by a panel of experts from agricultural extension and education department of the university. Its reliability was tested during a pretest by Cronbach's alpha and was 0.73. Results showed that a majority of the students (61.9%) used only two learning styles, namely accommodator and diverger. Furthermore, there was no significant relationship between the students' learning style and gender, level of education, fields of education, or place of living (rural/urban). In contrast, a significant relationship was observed between the students' learning style and three teaching methods including practicals, visit and field trips, and question and answer.

Keywords: learning styles; teaching methods; learning outcomes; agriculture; experiential learning; Iran; higher education; universities; agricultural college; gender; education level; education topics; location; practicals; visits; field trips; question and answer; Q&A.

DOI: 10.1504/IJMIE.2016.075557

International Journal of Management in Education, 2016 Vol.10 No.2, pp.174 - 184

Received: 27 Jan 2015
Accepted: 20 Jul 2015
Published online: 28 Mar 2016 *

Full-text access for editors Full-text access for subscribers Purchase this article Comment on this article