Learning Style of Humanities, Commerce and Science Students: A Study on Higher Secondary Students from West Bengal

Abstract

Learning style is the manner in which a learner perceives, interacts with, and responds to the learning environment. Components of learning style are the cognitive, affective and physiological elements, all of which may be strongly influenced by a person’s cultural background. The present study aims to understand the learning style adapted by higher secondary students. The study sample consists of 90 higher secondary school students (30 each from science, humanities and commerce background). The male female ratio was 50:50. The age range was from 16-18 years. They were all from middle socio-economic status. They were administered learning style questionnaire given by Honey and Mumford (1986). In the present study, the result indicated that in the category of Stream the F score is significant in case of Pragmatist and Reflector. In the category of Gender the F score is significant in the dimension of Pragmatist. In the category of Gender*Stream the interaction between gender and stream were not found to be significant in any of the variable, viz., Theorist, Pragmatist, Activist, and Reflector. In case of Gender, the Mean scores of male in the category of Pragmatist are highest for the Humanities group followed by Commerce group and finally by Science group. Again the mean scores of female in the category of Pragmatist are highest for the Science group followed by Humanities group and finally by Commerce group. The present study is helpful in the field of designing educational guidance and curriculum for the Higher Secondary Students.