Assessing Learning Styles of Graduate Entry Nursing Students as a Classroom Research Activity: A quantitative...

Area of Science:

• Nursing Education
• Educational Psychology
• Student Learning

Background:

• Existing research highlights learning style differences between graduate and baccalaureate nursing students.
• Limited studies have explored learning styles within graduate entry nursing programs.
• Understanding these styles is crucial for optimizing educational strategies.

Purpose of the Study:

• To characterize the learning styles of students in graduate entry nursing programs.
• To provide data that can inform pedagogical approaches in nursing education.

Main Methods:

• A descriptive research design was employed.
• The Index of Learning Styles (ILS) was administered to 202 graduate entry nursing students.
• Data analysis included descriptive statistics, reliability, and validity testing.

Main Results:

• The predominant learning styles identified were sensing (82.7%), visual (78.7%), sequential (65.8%), and active (59.9%).
• The Index of Learning Styles demonstrated acceptable inter-item reliabilities and validity.
• Confirmatory factor analysis supported the psychometric properties of the ILS for this population.

Conclusions:

• Graduate entry nursing students tend to be concrete, fact-oriented, visual, sequential, and active learners.
• Educational strategies incorporating simulation, discussion, and knowledge application are recommended.
• The Index of Learning Styles is a reliable and valid instrument for assessing graduate entry nursing students' learning styles.