Learning style awareness and academic performance of students.

Introduction: Preferred approach to learning is one‘s own learning style. Learning style varies from individual to individual. When students learn in different ways; their preferred may be an important determinant of their academic performance. This study intends to explore this approach among the nursing students in Kolej Poly-Tech MARA. Methods: It was pre-test/post-test experimental study. Learning style preferences of nursing students were identified using a VARK learning style inventory. Students were informed of their preferred learning style and how to utilize their learning style strengths to improve learning for better academic performance in a one day workshop. Academic achievements of students in terms of GPA for the three consecutive examinations, two held before and one held after the workshop, were collected from the academic departments. Repeated measure ANOVA was done to compare the GPAs obtained by the students in those three examinations. Results: The study group of nursing students demonstrated different learning styles, with approximately half having a single predominant style preference. There was a significant improvement in the students‘ performance after the intervention (F (1.69,506.92) = 237.22, p<0.001). Discussion: Students‘ awareness of their strengths such as learning style preferences and how to utilize their strengths may improve their academic performance. Students should have awareness of their learning style and how to maximize their learning potential in the very early days of enrolment in the academic institution.

Validity of Communication Skills Attitude Scale among Malaysian Medical Students.

The Communication skills Attitudes Scale (CSAS) developed by Ress, et al. (2002) has been a widely used instrument for measuring communication skills. With the view to check the validity and reliability of CSAS, a pilot study was carried out to assess the attitudes of undergraduate medical students of Universiti Sains Malaysia (USM) towards communication skills for teaching-learning and its determinants. Thirty five undergraduate USM students were selected from the 1st, 3rd and 5th years by 3 steps stratified random sampling. Data were collected from the students by a self-administered questionnaire. Factor analysis was conducted to assess construct validity and Cronbach's alphas were calculated to evaluate internal consistency. Principal component analysis (PCA) of the scores from 26 items in the instrument showed 8 factors. Three items were less than 0.4 on any of the two factors in the two factor model. Factor 1 comprised of 15 items including 11 positive items that were positive and 4 negative items (>0.4) with a overall weak load (<0.4) on factor 2 While, factor 2 had 8 items including 7 negative items that were positive and 1 positive item that was negative (>0.4) with an overall weak load (<0.4) on factor 1. The internal consistency of positive attitudes scale (PAS) and negative attitudes scale (NAS) were α = 0.875 and α = 0.748 respectively. The CSAS was found to be valid and reliable to measure the positive and negative attitudes of the USM undergraduate medical students towards communication skills with modest modifications.