Learning styles preferences of statistics students. A study in the Faculty of Business and Economics at the UAE University

Pages227-243
Published date04 April 2016
DOIhttps://doi.org/10.1108/QAE-01-2014-0004
Date04 April 2016
AuthorDarwish Abdulrahman Yousef
Subject MatterEducation,Curriculum, instruction & assessment,Educational evaluation/assessment
Learning styles preferences of
statistics students
A study in the Faculty of Business and
Economics at the UAE University
Darwish Abdulrahman Yousef
UAE University, Al-Ain, UAE
Abstract
Purpose – Although there are many studies addressing the learning styles of business students as
well as students of other disciplines, there are few studies which address the learning style preferences
of statistics students. The purpose of this study is to explore the learning style preferences of statistics
students at a United Arab Emirates University (UAEU). Furthermore, it investigates whether there are
statistically signicant differences along the four dimensions of learning styles due to students’
demographic and academic characteristics.
Design/methodology/approach – Questionnaires were distributed to the whole population which
included 79 undergraduate statistics students at the UAEU, of which 69 returned the questionnaire.
Descriptive statistics such as frequencies and percentages were used to present the main characteristics
of respondents and the results of the study. Additionally, a chi-square test was used to nd out if there
were signicant differences along the four dimensions of learning style preferences due to students’
demographic and academic characteristics.
Findings The results indicate that UAEU undergraduate statistics students have balanced
preferences along the four dimensions of learning styles. Results also suggest that there are no
statistically signicant differences along the four dimensions of learning styles due to students’
demographic and academic characteristics, except in the active-reective and sensing-intuitive
dimensions with respect to high school type (private vs public).
Research limitations/implications – There are a number of limitations associated with this study.
First, the ndings of the study are based on data from only one university. Second, the sample was small
and limited to undergraduate statistics students and, therefore, it excluded graduate students who
might have had different experiences. Third, the results are based on a self-reported questionnaire and
this, in turn, might have affected the reliability of the results On the other hand, it has a number of
implications for educators and students. Educators will benet from the results of this study in the sense
that they will adopt teaching styles and strategies that match learning styles of the majority of their
students. Students themselves will benet from knowing their own learning style.
Originality/value – The present study is the rst attempt to explore learning styles preference of
undergraduate students not only in the UAE setting but also in the developing country setting.
Keywords Learning styles, United Arab Emirates, Higher education, Undergraduates,
Business education, Index of learning styles, Statistics students, Statistics education
Paper type Research paper
Introduction
Improving the quality of higher education institutions’ graduates is the main goal of
educators as well as curriculum developers and policy makers. Several studies have
shown that every individual has a unique learning style (Felder and Silverman, 1988;
The current issue and full text archive of this journal is available on Emerald Insight at:
www.emeraldinsight.com/0968-4883.htm
Learning
styles
preferences
227
Received 22 January 2014
Revised 9 July 2014
2 December 2014
Accepted 3 July 2015
QualityAssurance in Education
Vol.24 No. 2, 2016
pp.227-243
©Emerald Group Publishing Limited
0968-4883
DOI 10.1108/QAE-01-2014-0004
Bargar et al., 1994;Gappi, 2013), and the academic performance of higher education
students is related to their learning styles (Christou and Dinov, 2010;Abidin et al., 2011;
Komarraju et al., 2011;Yeung et al., 2012). As a result, improving students’ performance
requires that consideration is to be given to individuals’ learning style.
Students’ learning style preferences and the factors inuencing students’ learning
style preferences have been the subject of numerous publications, published either in
journals or in conference proceedings, over the past decades. This is due mainly to the
importance of learning styles. Students’ learning styles play an important role in their
understanding of the course material and in turn their performance in the course.
Additionally, learning styles play an equally important role in helping instructors
adopting the teaching styles that match their students’ learning styles. This in turn
enhances students’ ability to digest the material and improves students’ interest and,
consequently, students’ performance in the course. Furthermore, understanding
students’ learning styles provides curriculum developers with the information
necessary for developing schools’ curricula.
The term learning style has been dened as “being characteristics of the cognitive,
affective, and physiological behaviors that serve as relatively stable indicators of how
learners perceive, interact with, and respond to learning environment” (Keefe, 1979,p.4).
Dunn (1990, p. 353) sees learning style as “the way each learner begins to concentrate,
process, and retain new and difcult information”. Loo (2002, p. 349) denes learning
style as “the consistent way in which a learner responds to or interacts with stimuli in
the learning context.”. Felder (1996, p. 18) describes learning style as “characteristics
strengths and preferences in the way they take in and process information”. Learning
style was also dened as “the way in which a learner prefers to take in and process
information” (Rosati, 1999, p. 17). However, for the purpose of this study, Felder’s (1996)
denition of learning style was adopted.
An extensive literature search revealed lack of prior studies concerning statistics
students’ learning style preferences in the UAE context in particular. Furthermore, most
business students at the United Arab Emirates University (UAEU) and elsewhere
perceive statistics as one of the most difcult majors due to the quantitative nature of the
subjects taught in this major. Although there is a high demand for statistics graduates
in the UAE, few students usually select this major compared with other business majors
such as accounting, management, marketing and nance. This is due mainly to the
negative attitudes students have toward statistics as a major. Hence, it seems important
to investigate the learning style preferences of statistics students, so that appropriate
corrective actions could be taken and, consequently, better performance could be
attained. Additionally, a number of scholars argue that there is a need to investigate the
learning style preferences of undergraduate students in different cultures (Jaju et al.,
2002;Naik, 2009,2013).
The objective of this study was to explore learning style preferences of the UAEU
undergraduate statistics students. It also investigated whether there were signicant
differences along the four dimensions of learning styles due to students’ demographic
and academic characteristics.
The rest of the paper is organized as follows. The next section presents a brief
description of learning styles, followed by a literature review of previous research
related to the present study. The methodology and the process of data-gathering follow.
QAE
24,2
228

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