IADR Abstract Archives
Asessment of Learning and Teaching Style Preferences of Oral Hyigene Students and Educators at a Trainining Institution in Gauteng, South Africa
Objectives: 1. To determine learning styles of oral hygiene students
2. To determine the teaching styles of oral hygiene educators
2. To determine the differences between the learning and teaching styles of students and educators
Methods: This was a cross-sectional study and all oral hygiene (OH) students and full time OH educators were invited to participate. The data was obtained using the Visual, Auditory, Reading and Kinaethetic (VARK) learning and teaching styles questionnaire (version 7.8) for students and educators respectively. These standardised questionnaires have been used in previous studies and have been proven to be both reliable and valid. All data was anonymous and strictly confidential. The data was anaylsed using the Statistical Package for Social Sciences (SPSS)
Results: A total of 40 students and 35 educators completed the questionnaire (response rate was 100% and 80% respectively. On average, students prefered learning via the auditory method (6.43; ±2.88 ), then visual (5.98; ±2.57) followed by reading (4.82; ±2.04) and then kinaesthetic (4.70; ±2.67). The educators preferred teaching using the visual (6.44; ±2.38), auditory (6.22; ±2.68), reading (5.07; ±2.73) and then kinaesthetic (4.96; ±1.81) means of teaching.
Conclusions: The preferred learning style of these students were auditory and visual styles while the educators shown dominant preference in visual and auditory. There was a strong correlation between the teaching and learning styles of these students and their educators. Students need different methods to educate themselves and its better for both educators and students to try different methods of teaching.
2. To determine the teaching styles of oral hygiene educators
2. To determine the differences between the learning and teaching styles of students and educators
Methods: This was a cross-sectional study and all oral hygiene (OH) students and full time OH educators were invited to participate. The data was obtained using the Visual, Auditory, Reading and Kinaethetic (VARK) learning and teaching styles questionnaire (version 7.8) for students and educators respectively. These standardised questionnaires have been used in previous studies and have been proven to be both reliable and valid. All data was anonymous and strictly confidential. The data was anaylsed using the Statistical Package for Social Sciences (SPSS)
Results: A total of 40 students and 35 educators completed the questionnaire (response rate was 100% and 80% respectively. On average, students prefered learning via the auditory method (6.43; ±2.88 ), then visual (5.98; ±2.57) followed by reading (4.82; ±2.04) and then kinaesthetic (4.70; ±2.67). The educators preferred teaching using the visual (6.44; ±2.38), auditory (6.22; ±2.68), reading (5.07; ±2.73) and then kinaesthetic (4.96; ±1.81) means of teaching.
Conclusions: The preferred learning style of these students were auditory and visual styles while the educators shown dominant preference in visual and auditory. There was a strong correlation between the teaching and learning styles of these students and their educators. Students need different methods to educate themselves and its better for both educators and students to try different methods of teaching.