Demographic Factors and Learning Style Preferences of Students in Blended Instruction

Abstract

Background: Teaching is triadic in nature, compr ising the teacher , the subject matter and the learner. The learners often have full control of how they learn otherwise known as learning style. Learning style, therefore, is the way students construct their learning in order to suit their type of person. It is how they can be able to have a firm grasp of a subject matter and many factors are involved.
Objective: To determine the lear ning style pr efer ences of students in a blended learning environment
Methods: Thr ee Resear ch questions were raised to guide the study and three null hypotheses were tested at a 0.05 level of significance. A total of 144 undergraduates from two faculties (Natural Science and Management Sciences) were sampled from a private University operating a blended learning environment. The Grasha-Reichmann Student Learning Style Scales Inventory was adopted and administered to these undergraduates. The data obtained were analysed using SPSS version 25.
Results: The result obtained showed that a total of 55.6% of the respondents are males while 44.4% are females. Using the Grasha Reichmann Student Learning Style Scales Inventory, the learning preference with the highest sub scale mean score was collaborative with a mean value of 3.03±0.44 and the least mean learning preference was the avoidant (2.53± 0.48). 38.9% of the students combined more than one learning style. There was no significant difference in the learning style preference between male and female undergraduates (ᵡ2(7) = 10.26; ρ = 0.17) and between students (respondents) in Management and Natural Science ᵡ2 (7) = 9.01; ρ = 0.25). Also, there was no significant difference in the learning style preference based on their age groups ᵡ2 (14) = 9.01; ρ = 0.54).
Conclusion: Based on the findings of this study, it was concluded that if every study sampled is unimodal in their learning pattern, then the most preferred learning style among undergraduates in a blended learning environment is the Collaborative learning style, while for students that are multimodal in learning, their most preferred learning styles are a combination of collaborative learning style with avoidant style.