Analysis of Students’ Learning Styles to Improve Facilitation of Thinking Skills

Chantima Pattamathammalul

King Mongkut’s University of Technology Thunburi, Thailand

ABSTRACT

This study adopted Grasha-Reichmann learning style scales to identify the learning styles of 61 Thai undergraduate students and to find how the students with different learning styles performed in a case of learning and problem solving skills development in General Education. Out of the six styles that the inventory categorized, only four learning styles were found among the students. While the students who belonged to collaborative styles were the majority, the dependent type made up the minority of the class. The characteristics of the tasks were analyzed based on their potential effect over the student preference. According to the students’ performance, the majority of every learning styles achieved at the very good level in the tasks that allowed them to design learning strategy to achieve their goals and received feedback from their teacher regularly. Meanwhile, all students’ poorer performance were found in the task which required them to finish within the time limit but without teacher feedback. Instead of judging the student learning based on their styles, this paper would discuss the advantages of teacher feedback cycle over a learner’s preference that support the strength and inhibit weakness as shown in the clues out of the reported styles.

KEYWORDS

Learning style, instructional design, thinking skills, general education