THINKING AND LEARNING STYLES OF NURSING STUDENTS AT MURNI NURSING COLLEGE

The purpose of this study was to investigate the profiles of thinking and learning styles of nursing students at Kolej Kejuteraan Murni, Nilai, Negeri Sembilan. It also aimed to identify the relationship and contribution of thinking styles to learning styles as well as the effect on students’ academic achievements. The sample consisted of 157 second year students selected at random. Data were obtained through two questionnaires which are the Sternberg – Wagner (1997) inventory to measure thinking styles and Grasha–Riechmann Student Learning Style Scales (GRSLSS) to measure learning styles. Data collected were analysed using descriptive and inferential statisctics with the aid of SPSS programme version 11.5. The findings revealed that the dominant thinking styles were executive, judicial, monarchy, oligarchy, anarchy, global, local and conservative while the dominant leaning styles were found to be collaborative and competetive. There was a significant correlation between students’ thinking styles and their learning styles. However, there was no significant correlation between the dominant thinking styles and students’ academic achievement. Findings also reveled that the dominant thinking styles contributed to the variance of collaborative and competitive learning styles. Based on the findings of the study, we offer recommendations to help increase nursing students’ critical thinking skills based upon their preferred learning styles that can inevitably help to enhance the quality of teaching and learning in the quest to produce good quality nurses.