Learning Style Changes and Their Relationship to Critical Thinking Skills

Abstract

This study reports on the results of a research on learning styles and critical thinking skills of sixty eight postgraduate students of Master's Level Business Education Programs. These students have participated in both phases of our research. In the first phase, carried out in spring 2005, Kolb's Learning Style Inventory (LSI v.3) was the basis of the administered questionnaire and in the second phase, carried our in winter 2005 - 06, the LSI v.3 and the California Critical Thinking Skills Test (CCTST) were the basis of the administered questionnaire. Results show that the prevailing learning style types are the 'assimilating' and the 'converging' ones. Between the first and the second phase students have become more balanced learners. This balanced learning development relates to both 'Concrete - Abstract' and 'Active - Reflective' dimensions of the learning process and this latter dimension correlates significantly with students' critical thinking skills on all scales of the used instrument.

Keywords: learning styles and types, balanced learning, critical thinking skills, interrelationship

JEL Classification: A12, A23