The Relationship Between Learning Style and Anxiety Among Japanese Undergraduates

Abstract

This study examined the relationship between learning style and anxiety among university freshmen, controlling for gender. Although many studies on learning style have been conducted since the 1960s, relatively little research has highlighted an association between learning style and anxiety. Particularly, there is limited information on how learning style relates to anxiety at a time when students experience the important transition from high school to university. This study sought to fill this gap. Participants of the study consisted of 194 freshmen of a Japanese university located near Tokyo. The third version of Kolb's Learning Style Inventory was used to identify students' learning style, while the State-Trait Anxiety Inventory (STAI) developed by Spielberger was employed to examine the level of state and trait anxiety. Data were collected in a required course and analyzed using two-way analysis of variance (i.e., learning style and gender). In our sample, 71 students had an Accommodating learning style; 69, Diverging; 41, Assimilating; and 13, Converging. Thus, as a whole, Japanese freshmen were more inclined towards a feeling than a thinking learning orientation. The study included 143 men and 51 women. Analysis of variance results revealed that the four learning styles significantly differed in both state and trait anxiety variables. However, there was an insignificant difference in both anxiety types between male and female students. Additionally, there was no interaction effect of learning style and gender in terms of both types of anxiety. The Tukey post hoc test showed that the Diverging learning style had a significantly higher level of state anxiety than the Accommodating style and Converging style. Also, the Diverging style had a significantly higher level of trait anxiety than the Accommodating style and a marginally higher level than the Converging style. These results suggest that regardless of gender, freshmen with a Diverging learning style, compared with other learning styles, tend to have the highest level of state and trait anxiety during this important academic transition.