Critical thinking and learning styles of nursing students at the Baccalaureate nursing program in Korea

The purpose of this study is to examine the critical thinking dispositions and learning styles, as well as the relationships between critical thinking and learning styles of nursing students enrolled in Baccalaureate nursing programs in Korea. The convenient sample consisted of 724 students from five cities. The learning style inventory of Kolb (1976) and critical thinking disposition inventory of Rudd et al (2000) were used for collecting data. Learning styles of the subjects were Diverging 315 (43.5%), Accommodating 223 (30.4%), Assimilating 78 (10.8%), and Converging 65 (9.0%). There were no significant differences in learning styles among grades (p=.197). The level of critical thinking significantly differed among learning styles (p=.000), and grades (p=.043). Critical thinking positively related to learning styles (r=.219) and grades (r=.097). This study suggested that adopting Abstract Conceptualization and Active Experimentation modes of pedagogy may promote critical thinking.