Determining learning style and its relationship with educational achievement in nursing and midwifery students

The health care system and the method of teaching are very dynamic. Awareness of students learning styles provides information for teachers to observe the variation in training methods and help students to facilitate learning. The purpose of this study is to determination of the learning styles of nursing and midwifery students and its relationship with their educational achievement. In this cross-sectional study, the undergraduate nursing and midwifery students of Tehran University of Medical Sciences in third and first academic year were investigated in 2008. Data were collected through the learning style questionnaire and demographic information. Gathered data were analyzed by statistical tests included t-test, 2 and kruscal – valis through SPSS software. The dominant learning styles of students, is the diverging style. Significant relationship between their learning style and educational achievement was not observed. There was significant correlation between their learning style and average scores in general courses (P=0.045). Considering the dominant diverging styles and diversity in learning styles of nursing and midwifery students under study; consideration of individual differences and different learning styles of students in designing various methods of teaching using the existing infrastructure facilities and information technology is proposed.