LEARNING
STYLES OF STEM
STUDENTS OF
UNIVERSITY OF
NORTHERN
Proponents:
PHILIPPINES
Neil Cyril Fortuna
Ira Riva Lastimosa
Dane Angel Palad
Mark Russel Calcetas
Rationale
RATIONALE
Many people recognize that each person prefers different learning styles and
techniques. Learning styles group common ways that people learn. Everyone has a
mix of learning styles. Some people may find that they have a dominant style of
learning, with far less use of the other styles. Others may find that they use different
styles in different circumstances. There is no right mix. Nor are your styles fixed. You
can develop ability in less dominant styles, as well as further develop styles that you
already use well. They also change the way you internally represent experiences, the
way you recall information, and even the words you choose. Learning style
inventories are designed to help respondents determine which learning style they
have.
These inventories typically take the form of a questionnaire that focuses on how
people prefer to learn. Respondents choose the answers that most closely
resemble their own preferences. Learning styles refer to a range of competing
and contested theories that aim to account for differences in individuals'
learning. These theories propose that all people can be classified according to
their style of learning, although the various theories present differing views on
how the styles should be defined and categorised.A common concept is that
individuals differ in how they learn. The idea of individualized learning styles
became popular, and has greatly influenced education despite the criticism that
the idea has received from some researchers proponents recommend that
teachers assess the learning styles of their students and adapt their classroom
methods to best fit each student's learning style.
Although there is ample evidence that individuals express preferences for
how they prefer to receive information, few studies have found any validity
in using learning styles in education. Although learning styles will inevitably
differ among students in the classroom. Teachers should try to make
changes in their classroom that will be beneficial to every learning style. The
manner in which a student learns is considered his or her learning style. A
student may learn best by seeing, hearing, being active, or reflecting, to
name a few. Learning styles are typically described by a student's sensory
modalities visual, tactile, auditory, and kinesthetic and intellectual processes
active, reflective, global, or analytical. Teaching styles and tools also vary
and typically include giving lectures, holding discussions, role playing, or
demonstrating. Mismatches between teaching styles and student learning
styles can cause students to become inattentive and unproductive in class.
Numerous learning style inventories are available to identify individual
student learning styles.
CONCEPTUAL FRAMEWORK
Independent Variables Dependent Variables
Profile of the
Respondents
•Age
LEARNING STYLES OF
•Sex
•Final grade last school THE STUDENTS
year
Research paradigm
The paradigm above shows the independent
variable which is the profile of the respondents in
terms of age, sex and final grade last school year will be
correlated to the dependent variable which is the
learning style of the students.
MAIN OBJECTIVE
This study aims to determine the
learning styles of STEM students in
University of Northern Philippines
during the school year 2017-2018
SPECIFIC OBJECTIVES
Specifically, it seeks to answer the following questions:
1. What is the profile of the respondents in terms of the
following:
a. age;
b. sex; and
c. final grade last school year?
SPECIFIC OBJECTIVES
2. What is the level of learning styles among the SHS
STEM students interms of:
a. auditory,
b. visual and,
c. Kinesthetic
3. Is there a significant relationship between the profile
of the respondents and the learning styles of the students?
RESEARCH METHODOLOGY
This study provided a discussion on the
research design population, data gathering
instrument, and data gathering procedure.
Research Design
This study employed the descriptive-correlational. The learning
styles of STEM students related variables namely: sex, age, and final
grade last school year. The respondents profile was further correlated
with their learning style.
Data Gathering Instrument
To obtain relevant information on the students related variables sex,
age, final grade last school year and a set of questionnaire to be answer
by the students.
Part I consists of the profile of the respondents gathered included
variabe such as age, sex and final grade last school year.
Part II consisted of items measuring learning style adopted from the
study of O’Brien (1985). The said questionnaire was composed of 30
items equally distributed along 3 learning styles namely: Auditory,Visual
and,Kinesthetic.
Data Gathering Procedure
Prior to the conduct of the study, the researchers asked for
approval from the SHS coordinator. The researchers made use of 30
questionnaires adopted from the web. The selected Science and
Technology Engineering Mathematics Senior High School Students in
the University of Northern Philippines were chosen to be as the
respondents. After floating the questionnaires, the researchers
tabulated the data, analyzed, summarized and interpret.
Population and Sample
The respondents of this study were
50selected students in every sections of
Science, Technology, Engineering and
Mathematics Strand in University of
Northern Philippines.
FINDINGS OF THE STUDY
After the analysis and interpretation of data, the researchers
summarizes their findings as follows.
1. Profile of the Grade 12 STEM students in the University of Northern
Philippines
On Age. The table indicates that 40 (80%) of the respondents are 17
years old, 9 (18%) 18 years old, and 1(2%) are 16 years old.
On Sex. Majority of the respondents 34(68%) were females and only 16
(32%) were males.
On final grade last school year. Majority of the respondents got 1 (2%)
75,81,82,84,92,93,94 and 96 of final grade last school year, and some
of them, 3(6%) of the respondents got 89 of their final grade,
2. The level of learning style experiences of the respondents
On Auditory StyleThe respondents experience a Fair level of
Auditory styleof learning rating ( x̅ 2.122).
On Visual Style. The overall level of Visual style as rated by the
respondents got a mean rating of ( x̅ 1.932) and rated as Fair.
On Kinesthetic Style. Kinesthetic style was rated a Fair with a
mean score (x̅ 2.022)
3. The sinificant relationship betweeb the profile of
the respondents and their level of learning style
Age ( t-value= 3.85**) of the respondents
significantly relate with the learning style of the
respondents. The rest of the variables did not yield
significant.
CONCLUSION
Based on the findings presented, the following conclusions were drawn:
1. Majority of the respondents are 17 years of age whose sex are female
and have a 85 final grade last school year.
2. The Fair level of visual style experiences of the respondents implies that
the students are haing a hard time to learn through images. Therefore,
the respondents which is the Grade 12 STEM students prefer the
Auditory style which a person learns through listening.
The Fair level of auditory learning styleis the manifestation
that have a equal perception of this type of learning style which
is the way of learning in which information is associated with
images.
The Fair level of visual learning style is the implication that
students have a fair perception of this type of learning style
which is the way of learning in which information is associated
with images.
The Fair level of Kinesthetic learning style is a manisfestation
in which learning takes place by the students carrying have an
balance perception of the respondents.
3. Kinesthetic learning style is significantly
relates with the students
which learning takes place by carrying out
physical activities, rather than listening to a
lecture or watching demonstrations.
RECOMMENDATION
Based on the findings and conclusion grown the researcher recommends the
following:
1. The students should improve their visual learning style by practicing their
evaluation style of learning through images.
2. The teachers should mold their students ability to learn through images as
early as primary schooling.
3. A similar study should be conducted about the learning styles of the students
in terms of Auditory, visual and kinesthetic.
