Learning Styles and Preferences in Nurse Education

Introduction

For decades, people have been trying to define universal ways to educate individuals to make it easier for the system to work in terms of collective education. However, the attempts remain unsuccessful due to the fact that human cognitive abilities and perception of new information are so diverse that they cannot be unified even with the help of the most inclusive system. For this reason, the process of education has been divided according to various learning styles and preferences. Indeed, recent studies indicate that students who do not experience the constraints of learning hierarchy are more likely to succeed in completing the task (Hsu, 2017). The primary purpose of the present paper is to conduct a critical analysis of personal learning styles and preferences and identify the extent to which these peculiarities affect the process of education in healthcare.

Summary of a Personal Learning Style

Having completed the VARK Questionnaire, I have discovered that my preferred learning styles were kinesthetic and “read/write.” The kinesthetic style stands for the process of acquiring information through an empirical approach, meaning that such active participation in the process as experimenting contributes to the learner’s better understanding (Tyas & Safitri, 2017). Another learning style efficient for my personality is reading and learning, a process perfectly compatible with academic studies. The combination of these learning styles provides students and professionals with the opportunity to combine theoretical and empirical data equally to achieve beneficial results.

Preferred Learning Strategies

Considering my predisposition for various learning styles simultaneously, the most relevant strategy in terms of education is multimodal, as this model is aimed at combining different styles to make sure that a learner grasps the information. According to the researchers, the idea of multimodality has recently become one of the most beneficial in terms of a deeper understanding of any issue, even if it concerns the process of healthcare education (Ramachandram & Taylor, 2017). According to the test results, people with multimodal preference are better at perceiving information through active engagement in the process and studying the visual material related to the issue, including graphs, diagrams, layouts, and notes. Indeed, when applying this information to my actual learning patterns, it may be outlined that I pay attention to the empirical evidence more frequently than to the theoretical basis.

The Effects of Individual Learning Styles

In today’s world, when much emphasis is placed on individual preferences and outlooks, it is hard to find reasonable arguments in favor of a unified system of learning. Thus, the idea that every human being should learn according to the peculiarities of their cognitive abilities sounds relevant to the context of both modern science and psychology. When learners refer to beneficial learning strategies, they are generally more capable of developing an agile framework for acquiring information. According to the research, when students take the chance to explore their learning habits, they have a higher probability of retaining knowledge in the long-term perspective (Rovers, Stalmeijer, van Merriënboer, Savelberg, & De Bruin, 2018). For example, when applying a universal approach to information processing, such conventional methods as rereading or highlighting necessary information are frequently considered as outdated and inefficient. However, it was estimated in terms of researchers that some students perceived these strategies as working for their long-term memory and learning in general (Rovers et al., 2018). Thus, it may be concluded that choosing a learning strategy is beneficial for the individual’s success.

When speaking of the role of educators in the given scenario, it is necessary to tackle both practical and psychological aspects of identifying learning processes. Thus, when encouraging learners to use different methods to define the most efficient one, educators make sure that their effort pays off in the long-time perspective. Moreover, the learners who feel as their individual qualities are taken into account are more likely to pay attention to the material covered.

Learning Styles in Health Promotion and Education

Individuals participating in health promotion are the ones who require exhaustive information on the matter of learning styles and strategies because their sphere of professional competence cannot exist without life-long learning. According to the researchers, college education serves as a foundation for healthcare professionals in terms of promoting quality education and knowledge exchange (Vizeshfar & Torabizadeh, 2018). Thus, when speaking of nurses, the extent to which they use specifically tailored learning strategies in terms of receiving a degree plays a significant role in their further readiness to learn new information. Moreover, the existence of various models contributes to the development of behavioral change within individuals, as they tend to feel more engaged in the process of acquiring information when using methods that are efficient for their personalities. Despite an increasing number of strategies existing in today’s educational system, every approach may be successfully applied to the field. For example, when considering the divergent learning style, the framework may be used in the education process through showing real cases and encouraging nurses to reflect critically on the evidence.

Conclusion

The learning process is unquestionably one of the key features of successful health care. Hence, to ensure efficient learning outcomes, professionals are to define their preferred strategy to process information both as educators and learners. In terms of the analysis, it was identified that my learning style is rather multifunctional, and this fact provides me with the opportunity to use various approaches to processing. The aforementioned analysis also demonstrates the need for educators to reconsider their preferences in terms of learning to secure beneficial outcomes.

References

Hsu, T. C. (2017). Learning English with augmented reality: Do learning styles matter? Computers & Education, 106, 137-149.

Ramachandram, D., & Taylor, G. W. (2017). Deep multimodal learning: A survey on recent advances and trends. IEEE Signal Processing Magazine, 34(6), 96-108.

Rovers, S. F., Stalmeijer, R. E., van Merriënboer, J. J., Savelberg, H. H., & De Bruin, A. B. (2018). How and why do students use learning strategies? A mixed methods study on learning strategies and desirable difficulties with effective strategy users. Frontiers in Psychology, 9, 2501.

Tyas, P. A., & Safitri, M. (2017). Kinesthetic learning style preferences: A survey of Indonesian EFL learners by gender. JEES (Journal of English Educators Society), 2(1), 53-64.

Vizeshfar, F., & Torabizadeh, C. (2018). The effect of teaching based on dominant learning style on nursing students’ academic achievement. Nurse Education in Practice, 28, 103-108.

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