Learning Styles and Self-Regulation: An Exploratory Study among University Students in India

Abstract

Learning styles and Self-regulation play a significant role in determining performance not only in academic sphere but also in career front. This further influences one's efforts invested towards self-improvement. Individuals vary in their learning styles. The objectives of the present study are to explore the learning styles, self-regulation of students and also to examine the role of self-regulation on student's learning styles. Purposive sampling method was used to select participants consisting of 100 adolescents in the age range of 17 to 20 years. Grasha Riechmann Student Learning Style Scale (measuring six learning styles - independent, avoidant, collaborative, dependent, competitive, participant) and Adolescent Self-Regulatory Inventory (having two dimensions- short term self-regulation and long term self-regulation) were administered. Most of the university students displayed use of certain learning styles and less of other learning styles. Students with high self-regulation and low self-regulation differed in their learning styles. Results also showed that there was a significant relation between self-regulation and some of the learning styles.