Learning Style Preference and Its Correlation with Gender

Learning styles have been investigated and classified by several scholars. One of such investigations is the Gender of the individual which can affect learning style. This study investigated the difference in the means of learning styles and its correlation with gender among community health officer trainees at the University of Port Harcourt Teaching Hospital, Nigeria.

This is a correlational descriptive study, and a census was carried out. A structured questionnaire was utilized and a VARK learning style inventory was used.

The reliability of the research instrument using the Cronbach alpha method, the VARK learning style questionnaire had a reliability coefficient of .755, for the subscales visual .455, aura .351, read/write, and kinaesthetic .753. With 60 respondents the means were visual 2.633, aura 4.2833, read/write 3.7500, and kinaesthetic 5.1833 while the standard deviation is visual 1.765, aura 2.429, read/write 2.53534, and kinaesthetic 2.88474. Multiple Analysis of Variance (MANOVA) was conducted to assess the means of the four learning styles concerning gender. The F ratios for the univariate analysis show that males and females did not differ across the four learning styles according to VARK (aural, visual, kinaesthetic, and read/write learning styles), significantly i.e. p < 0,05. Precisely the computed F = .032, P >.05, i.e., p = .859, i.e., p = .859 revealed that no statistical difference occurred between males and females with visual learning styles.

The study concluded that community health officer trainees possessed different learning styles and most of them used the kinaesthetic learning style. However, the community health officer trainees were significantly different in their responses to the learning style model according to the VARK inventory of learning styles, but no relationship existed between learning style and gender.