KOLB'S LEARNING STYLE INVENTORY:
CHARACTERISTICS AND RELATION TO RESULTS OF EVALUATION IN PRE-CLINICAL LEARNING
Keywords:
Learning style inventory, Internal and external validity, Style and pre-clinical learning, Internai and externai validity, Style and pre-clinica learningAbstract
The paper assesses psychometric features of Kolb's
Learning Style Inventory (LSI) and the relationships of its scales to both cognitive performance and learning experience outcome measures in an
interdisciplinary program. The subjects were 474 pre-clinical medicai
students. Results of score intercorrelations, internai consistency and
factor structure analysis were consistent with a two-dimension definition
of differences in learning orientation: the Abstract-Concrete and
Active-Reflective scales. Scores show distinct and significant albeit weak
correlations with measures of both cognitive performance and
meaningfulness of the learning experience. Significant differences in score
distribution among subjects were also observed, abstract orientation
prevailing overall but with a relative excess of concrete orientation among
females. The findings suggest that LSI has limited value in explaining
learning-in-context variation, but can be useful in inducing reflection on
this process.
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