Learning preferences, values, and student satisfaction

This study sought to determine the relative importance of values and learning preferences for educational satisfaction and to examine differences in value and learning preferences among undergraduate and graduate occupational therapy students and undergraduate physical therapy students. Although all three groups conformed to a profile of preferring teacher-structured, concrete, interpersonal learning, the graduate occupational therapy students appeared to give greater emphasis to universal social values and to have a stronger preference for abstract learning than both groups of undergraduates. The undergraduates expressed significantly greater satisfaction with their education than the graduate occupational therapy students; for each of the three groups educational satisfaction correlated with a different set of values or learning preferences.