Learning Styles

This study examined the differences among high، mid and low ambiguity tolerance groups in their reading comprehension ability and their metacognitive awareness of reading strategies. To this end، 123 first-year college students majoring in Engineering with an age range of 19-25 were stratified into three groups of high، mid and low ambiguity tolerance to participate in the study. They took part in the Nelson test of proficiency and a reading comprehension test and also filled out two questionnaires: the Metacognitive Awareness of Reading Strategies Inventory، and the Tolerance of Ambiguity Scale. The results showed significant differences between Low and High groups. That is، high ambiguity tolerance students scored higher on reading comprehension test، displayed higher metacognitive awareness of reading strategies، and showed higher perceived use of Global and Problem-Solving metacognitive reading strategies. However، no significant differences were found between the middle group and the other two groups in these variables. Also، no significant difference was found in the use of Supportive strategies among these three groups. The findings are interpreted to have implications for syllabus designers and EFL teachers.

The present investigation sought to explore the relationship between learning styles and writing behaviors of EFL learners in a blended environment. It also aimed to identify the learning style types best predicting writing behaviors. Initially, the participants' preferred learning styles were identified through the Kolb’s learning style inventory (Kolb, 1984). Secondly, data were obtained through analyzing the Stat counter and Input log data to reveal the pausing, revising and switching behaviors of the participants who attended a writing course in which they developed their writing texts using an online module. The results indicated a negative and significant correlation between the accommodator learning style and the revision behavior. A statistically significant and positive relationship was also found between the converger learning style and the pausing behavior, and between the converger learning style and the revision behavior Furthermore, a positive and significant relationship between the accommodator learning style and the switching behavior was revealed. The accommodator learning style was found as the best predictor for the switching behavior and the converger learning style turned to predict the revision and pausing behavior at an optimal level. The findings suggest that internal factors, cognitive and learning styles, play a significant role in the learning behaviors of English writing learners. The results encourage writing educators to take into account students’ learning style and provide more flexible and rigorous learning environment in which all learners can take benefit.

This study investigated the impact of visual-kinesthetic tasks on ESP university students’ vocabulary learning. Two intact classes of university students were selected as control (23 students) and experimental (36 students) group. A proficiency test, a pretest and a posttest were administered and the students were exposed to a set of treatments. Also a questionnaire administered to students, recognized each student’s learning style. The posttest mean score of experimental group was significantly different from control group’s posttest proved significant effect of visual and kinesthetic activities on ESP students’ vocabulary learning. Also this significant effect was repeated regarding student’ related learning style.

The role of oral corrective feedback has been investigated by SLA researchers from various perspectives. Focusing on Iranian EFL context, the present study aimed to explore the role of receiving corrective feedback in the learning of English grammatical structures. It also probed the association between the type of corrective feedback and EFL learners’ learning styles. This was an experimental study examining a sample of 128 intermediate-level EFL learners through pretest-posttest control group design. Data of the study was analysed through one-way ANOVA conducted on post-test scores. Results of the study indicated that there were statistically significant differences between experimental groups and control group in terms of receiving feedback. These findings implied the outperformance of the metalinguistic feedback group over recast group and also the superiority of providing EFL learners with feedback compared to no-feedback. The results obtained from two-way ANOVA revealed an effectively significant interaction between the type of oral corrective feedback and the learners’ learning styles. The study discussed how both types of corrective feedback and learning styles could manipulate L2 acquisition which might have some implications for EFL language teachers in the classroom.

This study is aimed at (1) examining the preferred English learning styles among secondary school students; (2) exploring the mismatches in teachers’ English teaching styles and students’ learning style preferences. A quantitative approach was used to seek answers to the research questions. The sample of this research involved 204 students and 5 teachers of English from 5 different secondary schools in Vientiane Capital, Lao PDR. All student and teacher participants were invited to rate their agreement levels on a five-point rating scale, towards Reid’s (1995) six learning style preferences. The data collected were analyzed based on descriptive statistics. The findings reveal that student participants had more than one preferred learning styles. They preferred Kinesthetic, Group, and Audio learning styles in their English classes. For them, learning through doing, learning and working together with classmates, doing or resolving challenging tasks as well as listening to teachers and someone’s instructions through interaction made them learn more effectively. The study also finds that mismatches in styles between teachers’ teaching styles and students’ learning style preferences do exist in four out of the five sampled schools. Teachers are more oriented to Visual styles. For instance, they favor writing things on board, asking students to read from textbooks, provide activities that make students read rather than listen to instructions, while students are likely not to prefer the Visual learning style.

Purpose: The purpose of this research was to investigate the relationship between thinking styles functions and learning styles with the rate of test anxiety of students. Material & Method: Method of research was correlation. Statistical population was the high school students (male& female) in Arak city. According to the multistage cluster random sampling, first, the dual areas of education Arak city was selected by one area of education, then 400 students (200 female & 200 male) completed the Kolb Learning Styles Inventory (1991) and Sternberg-Wagner thinking Styles Inventory (1992). Data were analyzed using descriptive findings Including mean, standard deviation and frequency distribution and also were analyzed using Pearson correlation coefficient and one-way Anova. Findings: findings indicated significant relationship between the executive and judicial thinking styles and also legal thinking style with students' test anxiety. The results showed that assimilate learning style than most other styles have been less test anxiety. Discussion: students who follow thinking and learning styles which best fits to their personality characteristic experience less test anxiety.

Purpose: Considering the role and importance of self-learning in academic success and performance, the present study was conducted with the aim of constructing of self-learning assessment tool in the university. Methodology: The present study in terms of applied purpose and in terms of how it was performed, it was cross-sectional. The population and sample of the research in the first part were the professors of Islamic State and Islamic Azad universities of Tehran and Gilan provinces in the academic year 2019-2010, from which 60 people were selected by multi-stage cluster sampling method. And in the second part, the students were from the same universities, from which 450 people were selected by multi-stage cluster method. Based on literature review and interviews with professors, 91 items were designed in six dimensions: Hitagogic ability, self-regulation, critical thinking, knowledge management, adult education, and learning styles. To evaluate the face and content validity of experts, to evaluate the construct validity by exploratory factor analysis and to evaluate the reliability of Cronbach’s alpha coefficients in SPSS software version 19. Findings: The findings showed that according to experts’ opinion 15 items were removed and the final form of the scale had 76 items. Also, the results of confirmatory factor analysis showed that the self-learning assessment scale in the university had six factors of Hitagogic ability, self-regulation, critical thinking, knowledge management, adult education and learning styles that reliability through Cronbach’s alpha coefficient for all factors above 0.70 and for the whole scale was 0.932. Conclusion: According to the results of this study, the self-learning assessment scale in the university had appropriate psychometric indices and can be used as a suitable and valid tool in other studies to assess self-learning.

The present study aimed to investigate and compare the relationship between academic buoyancy, learning styles, and school bonding among students educated via the educational approaches of Mizan and public schools in Tehran. The study was descriptive-correlational. The statistical population comprised 2680 elementary-school students in Tehran in the 2018-2019 academic year. A sample of 600 was selected from public and guided discovery schools (300 students from public and 300 from Mizan guided discovery schools) based on stratified random sampling. The research tools included Martin and Marsh Academic Buoyancy Scale, Grasha-Riechmann Learning Style Survey (LSS), and Rezaei Sharif School Bonding Questionnaire (SBQ). Data were analyzed using the Pearson correlation coefficient and one-way analysis of variance (ANOVA). The results showed that the score of academic buoyancy was significantly higher among students receiving guided discovery than those receiving traditional education (p <0.05). The mean scores of avoidant and competitive learning styles were lower in students receiving guided discovery learning (p <0.05). Furthermore, the mean scores of school bonding and belief in school were higher among students receiving guided discovery than public education. (p <0.05). The study findings further highlighted the significance of considering learning styles and school bonding on academic buoyancy. It is considered a crucial step in understanding the factors affecting academic buoyancy in students.

In the last decade, the tendency to use Blended learning across the globe has grown steadily due to its benefits and attributes, and to address the weaknesses of e-learning and face-to-face Instruction. The purpose of this study was to investigate the effect of Blended Learning based on Gardner's multiple intelligences on students' learning and to compare it with the face-to-face approach. The study population included all students enrolled in Tehran Farhangian University of Primary Education. This quasi-experimental study was carried out with pretest-posttest with  a control group in the academic year of 2016-2017. A total of 40 female college students participated in this study. They were selected by the available sampling method and randomly divided into two groups. Data collecting tools was a questionnaire of multiple intelligence profiles with 80 items, a questionnaire measuring the level of learning by comparing pre and post-test. Both experimental and control groups trained in eight 90-minute sessions. The control group was taught using face-to-face traditional Instruction and the experimental group along with Blended learning and network-based learning, went under Blended Instruction based on multiple intelligences using articulate engage software with educational media (text, audio, image, animation and video). To design learning activities, learners were grouped according to their predominant intelligence, which was measured through the multiple intelligence profile. In both groups, the pre-test and post-test were the same academic achievement. Data analysis was performed using SPSS 19 software. Findings of the research indicate that the level of students' learning in the experimental group has significantly increased in comparison with the control group after having participated in the Blended Learning based on multiple intelligences

This research aimed to study the relationship between learning styles among two groups of electronic and traditional students in PAYAM NOOR University and its relationship with the satisfaction. The research method was descriptive and co relational research. The study population included all male and female master students of electronic (virtual) (N=1400) and traditional (N=1600) courses of PNU in 1395-1396.Using Cochran formula, the estimated sample size of students for traditional and electronic courses were equal to 310 and 302 respectively (totaled 612). The sample size was selected by stratified random sampling method with proportional assignment. In order to collect data, Kolb (1999) learning styles questionnaire and Bahrani and Jokar (1378) critical student satisfaction questionnaire were used. For both, traditional and electronic groups, between learning styles (convergent, divergent, assimilator and accommodator) and satisfaction, there was a significant relationship. The results showed that in the traditional course converging, diverging, assimilator and accommodator styles have the highest relationship with the academic satisfaction. In electronic courses, divergent, assimilator, and convergent styles have the most relation to academic satisfaction. The study of the status of learning styles in the electronic group showed that the convergent learning style with (14.57%), has the least frequency, divergent with (30.79%) has the highest frequency, the assimilator style has (28.14%) and the accommodator has (26.49%) frequency. Regarding the status of learning styles in the traditional group, convergent and accommodator style have the least frequency and the assimilator learning style has the most frequency. In terms of quality assessment, most students were not satisfied with the traditional courses and in contrast, the electronic group had more academic satisfaction.  

The current study aimed to find the relationship between personality traits and learning styles of English for Academic Purposes (EAP) students across high, intermediate, and low levels of reading proficiency in online courses. To this purpose, 50 male and 50 female BA students were selected through convenient sampling from the executive management department at Iran University of Science and Technology, Tehran, Iran. Their age range was 20 to 26 years. They were divided into three groups of high, intermediate, and low reading proficiency based on a simulated TOEFL CBT reading test. Their learning style and personality type were assessed through Myers-Briggs Type Indicator (MBTI)-Form M and the Learning Style Inventory-3 (LSI3), respectively. Upon collecting the data from the MBTI, the LSI3, and the reading tests, the researchers coded the scores and used path analysis. The results showed that there were significant relationships among a number of the variables under investigation; especially extroversion was found to be an important personality trait affecting online reading proficiency and other variables. The results also showed that the extroversion trait had a positive significant relationship with high reading proficiency, while the thinking dimension resulted in low reading proficiency. Moreover, The participants who had the objective experience trait possessed a high ability in reading, and those who had the reflective observation trait were less proficient in reading.

 Juxtaposing the ubiquitous facets of mobile technology as everyware (Greenfield, 2010) and vocabulary as one of the most axial aspects of language learning (Bowles & Cogo, 2016; Schmitt & Schmitt, 2020) , besides the importance of considering learners’ attributes and needs (Taghizadeh, 2019) while developing a mobile vocabulary application (app), necessitates analyzing the relationship and impact of all these elements in a single structural model. To tackle the issue, first, via a mixed-methods design, the researcher developed a bespoke mobile application using the task model and the principles of agile methodology. and then investigated the impact of using the app on a sample of 62 Iranian EFL university students’ vocabulary recognition and recall, the results of which were published in two other articles. In this study, the researcher integrated the obtained data within a proposed structural model and assessed the model's fitness to investigate the interaction and interrelationship among the latent variables mentioned above. The results obtained from SEM-PLS analyses revealed that within the unified structural model, the learners’ preferences and needs were favorably influenced by their learning style orientation and technology savviness. Similarly, the findings verified the positive impact of considering learners’ preferences and needs during the agile app development lifecycle on the target participants’ vocabulary knowledge, encompassing vocabulary recognition and recall. Finally, the fitness of the proposed structural model was verified based on the criteria for model assessment mentioned by Sparks and Alamer (2022) . The SEM-PLS data analyses and the implications of the study are presented and discussed.

The role of learning styles in academic performance has long been the question of many educationalists. Sensory learning styles, which categorize learners into three groups of visual, auditory, and tactile students, have been said to be likely to play parts in academic performance. The purpose of the present study is twofold. Initially, this study aimed to see what weaknesses Iranian university students have in reading comprehension task. The next step was to seek if possessing different sensory learning styles can lead to a significant difference regarding reading comprehension performance. In this study, Cognitive Diagnostic Assessment was applied to provide us with comprehensive mastery reading subskill profiles of everyone. To do so, a reading comprehension test along with a learning style questionnaire were given to 301 Iranian university students, the responses were all divided into either correct or incorrect responses, and according to examinees’ questionnaire, they were categorized into three groups of visual, auditory, and tactile learners. According to the present study, Iranian university students were found to have difficulty dealing with implicitly stated information, understanding difficult vocabulary, and summarizing the textual information. Regarding the second question of this study, visual learners performed significantly better than their auditory counterparts in four skills of Basic Linguistic Knowledge, Implicitly Stated Information, Understanding Difficult Vocabulary, and Understanding Complex Text. However, no significant difference was found between auditory and tactile participants. This result reinforces the prominent role of learning styles in academic and educational settings, to develop efficient instructions and curriculums that best meet learners’ needs.

 Objective: Academically successful students may expect higher performance in their next projects, volunteer work, and study sessions. Consequently, the primary emphasis of educational experts has always been elements impacting academic performance. This article examined the mediating effect of learning styles in the interaction between metacognitive viewpoints and students's academic achievement.Methods: This was descriptive, correlational study. Total number of female high school students in Astaneh Ashrafieh was 1,211. Random sampling enabled a cohort of 291 students to be chosen. Data were obtained with Academic Performance Questionnaire, Metacognitive Beliefs Questionnaire (MCQ) and Learning Style Orientation Measure (LSOM). Data analysis included structural equation modeling applied using SPSS-22 and Smart PLS 3.2.9 tools and correlation testing.Results: The findings revealed that indirectly, metacognitive views influenced academic performance by means of learning techniques. Moreover, academic performance revealed rather strong and unambiguous links between metacognitive perspectives and learning techniques (p <.05).Conclusion: Improved metacognitive views among students assist them to plan, define precise targets, track their learning activities and academic growth, and identify their strengths and flaws. Improving academic success and preventing academic failure depend on one focusing on the influence of metacognitive aspects and students' learning styles. At last, this study underlines how much learning techniques and metacognitive attitudes affect academic performance. The results reveal that by developing metacognitive abilities and appreciating various learning approaches, teachers may support their students in obtaining their academic goals quite efficiently.