Learning styles in Physiotherapy and Occupational Therapy students: an exploratory study

Abstract

BACKGROUND: Learning styles of health care professionals are unique and tend to be profession- specific. This study aimed to compare the learning styles of undergraduate occupational therapy and physiotherapy students and to determine the relationship between preferred learning styles, demographic factors, and academic performance METHOD: The study design was a cross-sectional, descriptive study. Undergraduate occupational therapy and physiotherapy students completed a self-developed questionnaire and the Grasha-Reichmann Learning Style Inventory RESULTS: A total of 313 students with a mean age of 19.6±1.58 years participated in this study. The results showed that students preferred the collaborative (75%) learning style, with the first-year students scoring significantly higher in the collaborative style (3.97±0.48; p<0.001). The male students (2.67±0.65) scored higher in the competitive learning style than female students (2.20±0.62; p=0.001, d=0.757). The competitive learning style, when controlling for sociodemographic variables, is a significant predictor of an increase in academic performance in English language (B=2.28, [0.60-3.96]), physics (B=3.62, [0.22-7.02]) and overall academic performance (B=2.12, [0.34-3.90 CONCLUSION: The predominant preferred learning styles are the collaborative and participant styles. The application in the teaching space should be carefully considered for the selection of teaching approaches and activities. This study points to the Physiotherapy and Occupational Therapy programmes need to align to the collaborative style and respond with a variety of teaching methods. The associations shown between preferred learning styles and demographic variables point to the need to pay attention to diversity when selecting teaching approaches and activities Keywords: Grasha-Reichmann Learning Style Inventory, learning styles, occupational therapy, physiotherapy, undergraduate students

Investigating Learning Modalities among Diploma Students

“…The findings of a study by Deborah et al (2018) showed that students preferred kinesthetic learning the most. The same finding was also found by Olivier et al (2021) that the predominant preferred learning styles are the collaborative and participatory styles. This learning style is consistent with the kinesthetic style as well as with Mehmood's (2020) finding that students show a tendency to actively experiment (AE) in their learning, indicating that they want to be actively involved in their own learning process rather than just listening to lectures delivered in the traditional method.…”

“…One of them is to create and maintain the best way to impart knowledge to students. Identifying the preferred learning styles among students can be very arduous as there is no single style that can be said to be the best way to impart knowledge to students (Derkach & Kharitonenko, 2018;Ibrahim & Hussein, 2015;Noor Nasyikin et al, 2019;Fahim et al, 2021;Sam, 2022;Sherly Deborah et al, 2018;Olivier et al, 2021;Mehmood, 2020;Nasir et al, 2021;Quinn et al, 2018).…”

“…In terms of learning style tools and theories, there are more than 70 different learning styles identified in previous studies (Quinn et al, 2018), such as Kolb's experiential learning model, Fleming's VARK model, Entwistle's model, Barbe and Milone's VAK model and the Index of Learning Styles (ILS). Previous studies have tested numerous learning styles such as Fleming's VARK model (Nasyikin et al, 2019;Fahim et al, 2021;Deborah et al, 2018;Nasir et al, 2021), Index of Learning Styles (Quinn et al;Sam, 2022;Olivier et al, 2021), Felder-Soloman Learning Styles (Derkach & Kharitonenko, 2018), VAK Model (Ibrahim & Hussein, 2015) and Kolb Learning Model (Mehmood, 2020). Interestingly, these studies have attempted to identify preferred learning styles using numerous models and learning frameworks.…”

“…Many studies have been done to investigate learning styles (Derkach & Kharitonenko, 2018;Ibrahim & Hussein, 2015;Nasyikin et al, 2019;Fahim et al, 2021;Sam, 2022;Sherly Deborah et al, 2018;Olivier et al, 2021;Mehmood, 2020;Nasir et al, 2021;Quinn et al, 2018). The study in Ukraine by Derkach & Kharitonenko (2018) is done to investigate on preferred learning styles of undergraduate and graduate pharmacy students.…”

A pūrākau analysis of institutional barriers facing Māori occupational therapy students

“…And yet none of the models that we were being introduced to would fit with our wh anau. Learners have diverse learning styles and research by Olivier et al (2021) has identified that occupational therapy students prefer collaborative and participatory approaches. O'Toole (2014), in a review of teaching practices in Aotearoa, Canada, United States and Australia, found the expert-novice model widely in use within the Western tertiary education sector had limited alignment with Indigenous learning preferences.…”