Study of the relationship between learning styles and tendency to critical thinking in Campus students at Tehran University

Document Type : Research Paper

Authors

1 MSc. Student , University of Tehran

2 Professor, University of Tehran

Abstract

The main purpose of this study was to explore critical thinking dispositions level and the relationship between the learning styles and critical thinking dispositions among agricultural students, Campus of Agriculture and Natural Resources, University of Tehran. The study's respondents were 285 students (148 male, 126 female). The data were gathered through an instrument consisted of main three parts including “Kolb Learning Style Inventory (1985)” , California Critical Thinking Disposition Scale (1992) developed by Facione, and Demographic Data Questionnaire. The validity of the questionnaire was approved by the judgment of a panel of faculty members of the department of Agricultural extension and education, University of Tehran who were assumed here as experts. In order to measure the reliability of the questionnaire, Cronbach Alpha coefficients were calculated for the main scales of the questionnaire which ranged from 0.69 to 0.87. Data were analyzed using SPSS version 15. The critical thinking dispositions of the agricultural students were generally found to be at lower Levels. Overall results showed that there was no relationship between learning styles and critical thinking dispositions of agricultural students, but there was a statistically significant relationship between certain number of learning styles and critical thinking dispositions.

Keywords