Learning Styles and Academic Achievements of Stem Students

Abstract

Learning styles are the patterns and ways in which a student processes, interprets and elaborates information obtained according to their personal preferences. Students’ excellence, including those in the STEM fields, is often associated with several factors, such as learning styles, family socioeconomic status and gender, which are said to influence their success. This study was conducted to identify the learning styles and academic achievements of science students, as well as explore the relationship between learning styles and academic achievements. This study follows the quantitative research approach, and a questionnaire was used as the instrument to collect the data. 512 respondents were involved in this research. This study has shown that environmental and psychological are the two main factors influencing the learning styles of STEM students at public universities in Malaysia. This study also shows that environmental factors and psychological factors are the two main factors influencing the learning of STEM students in public universities in Malaysia. In addition, gender and socio-economic status do not have a direct effect on students’ learning styles and academic achievement. Similarly, there is no significant relationship between learning styles and students’ academic achievement.