Learning Styles among Students in an Advanced Soil Management Class: Impact on Students’ Performance

Abstract

Learning styles represent an integral component of the learning environment, which has been shown to differ across institutions and disciplines. To identify learner preferences within a discipline would aid in evaluating instructional resources geared toward active learning. The learning profiles of second-year soil science students (n = 62) were investigated using the VARK and index of learning styles (ILS) questionnaires, at the mid-semester stage. Student performance was measured using quality points (course work and final exam), which was also compared with to learning style preferences. The results showed that students were mostly multimodal (25%) and kinaesthetic (25%) for the VARK instrument. An almost balanced student profile was seen among the four dimensions for the ILS except between sequential and global preferences, which differed significantly (p < 0.05). Learning preference was not related to course performance. Students performed significantly better in course work compared with the final exam. Grouping students into “strong” and “balanced” profiles resulted in lower quality points for students labeled as having a strong preference. The data supported using a diverse set of instructional resources and complementary assessment, but how these and other attributes of the learning environment interact to facilitate better learning leaves much to be researched.