Assessment of students' learning styles preferences in the faculty of science, Tishreen University, Syria

Stating the way in which a learner begins to concentrate on, processes, absorbs, and retains new and difficult educational situation or problem is expected to assist the learner in the development of effective study strategies. Knowing students learning preferences will help lecturers to better design learning materials and teaching styles. The research aims to find out the learning preferences of students in the faculty of science in Tishreen University, the differences in learning styles or preferences between male and female students and between departments in the science faculty. Ninety-seven first year and second year students from four departments participated in the survey. Non-parametric procedures were used to test the research questions. In the evaluation of the differences of learning styles or preferences among departments, the Kruskal-Wallis test, was used as a non-parametric method. This effectively tested the hypothesis of equal distributions of three or more independent samples. Results show that the students prefer different learning styles: Visual/Verbal, Audio/Verbal, Visual/Non Verbal and Tactile/ Kinesthetic. A finding of significant difference indicated that the two samples of females and males differed on the variable of interest. There are very few significant differences among departments. The paper discusses the findings and the implications to designing of instruction in higher education. It will conclude with recommendations to lecturers to accommodate their teaching styles so that it is compatible with their students learning styles and preferences.