LEARNING STYLE PREFERENCES AMONG NURSING STUDENTS IN A PRIVATE UNIVERSITY IN WEST INDONESIA Nada Suraya Br Barus (a*), Voppy Selvia Christina Simorangkir (a*), Yuni Cantika Yulistiyani Sombu (a*), Riama Marlyn Sihombing S.Kp., M.Kep (a*), Ns. Shinta Marina J.P, S.Kep (a*)
a) Faculty of Nursing, Universitas Pelita Harapan
Jl. Jendral Soedirman, Kecamatan Kelapa Dua, Tangerang, Banten, 15810
Abstract
Objectives: Nursing knowledge and practice are evolving and nurse education are encouraged to empower the student to learn continuously and skilled in their profession. This is a challenge for first year students and educators with a shift from teacher-centered learning to learning strategies with case studies group, self-study, laboratory and clinical practice, and tutorials. The aim of this study to identify the learning style preferences using VARK (visual, aural, read/write and kinesthetic) of first year nursing students in a private university in west Indonesia.
Methods: This research used a descriptive quantitative method and was conducted in a private university in west Indonesia. A total of 337 of the first year of nursing students participated in this study through a total sampling technique. The VARK questionnaires by Neil Fleming was used to elicit the data, and univariate analysis was used to analyze the data.
Results: 251 students (74.5%) preferred multimodal learning style whilst the remaining 86 students (25.5%) preferred unimodal learning styles. With regard to the dominant preference, 27% student had a strong preference for quad modal, 24.3% for bimodal and 23.2 % for trimodal learning style. The rest of the participants were found to be unimodal learners with 13.9%, 8%, 2.7% and 0.9% of the students were Aural, Kinesthetic, Read/Write and Visual, respectively. Conclusions: Students with multimodal learning can learn productively as educators provide learning strategies that include visual, aural, read/write and kinaesthetic and the educators are encouraged to apply the multimodal teaching method and be more creative and engage the four categories of the modules in their teaching method.
