Learning styles: a curricular challenge for nursing education Estilos de aprendizaje: un reto curricular para la educación en enfermería

Abstract

Objective: Determine the learning styles and related factors in students from the nursing program of a private university in Medellin (Colombia). Materials and Methods: Transversal research with analytical intention, applied to 179 students enrolled in the nursing program. The data was recollected through: a self-applied interview that allowed to investigate relating sociodemographic and personal variables; as well as a questionnaire of Honey Alonso, CHAEA, about learning styles (Active, Reflexive, Theoretical and Pragmatic). The qualitative variables were obtained through frequency measures and the quantitative variables were obtained through central tendency. A bivariate analysis was performed using the Pearson’s chi-squared test; no statistical significance was obtained (p>0,05). Results: In the population studied women predominated with 85.4%; and the marital status ‘single’ with 89%. Regarding educative resources used, it was observed that: 62.1% go to the library to find information, and 65.9% use data bases as sources of information. The most used learning style was reflexive with 15% followed by theoretical with 14%. Conclusions: Nursing students apply the different learning styles in diverse semesters; however, there is a tendency toward the reflexive and theoretical styles; therefore, knowing these tendencies is a challenge for university teachers, since it requires performing different learning procedures to develop the nursing thinking in the students, according to their learning preference.