Students' Learning Preferences

Abstract

Higher education institutions strive to alleviate the predicament of high failure and dropout rates by improving the quality of teaching and learning. Awareness of learning styles could help students understand how they learn and empower them to take ownership of their learning so that they persevere and succeed in the institutions of higher education. Research has indicated that knowledge of learning styles increase academic success.  The purpose of this study was to identify student’s individual learning styles. A sample of 130 first year students in six faculties was used in this study. The instrument used for data collection is the Innovative Learning Experience (ILE) (Mkonto, 2010). The ILE was adapted from Centre for Innovative Teaching Experiences (C.I.T.E.) by Mkonto (2010) and consists of a writing activity and a questionnaire. The results revealed that although students have dominant learning styles that they use in preference to other learning styles, there are some students who make use of multimodal learning styles preferences and also there are learning styles prevalent in faculties. Knowledge of students’ learning styles, recognizing their strengths and weaknesses in learning ad provides the lecturer with valuable information.