Nursing students’ learning preferences and satisfaction levels: pathways to effective education

Abstract

BACKGROUND: Understanding nursing students learning preferences may help educators design more engaging educational experiences. However, evidence regarding the relationship between learning preferences, student satisfaction, and academic performance remains inconsistent. AIM: To examine the associations between nursing students' preferences, satisfaction levels, and grade point average (GPA). DESIGN: This was A Descriptive cross-sectional study. SETTING: College of Nursing, Misr University for Science and Technology, Egypt. SAMPLE: A convenient sample of 306 undergraduate nursing students from all academic levels was used. TOOLS: Data were collected using a socio-demographic questionnaire, the Student Satisfaction Scale, and Kolb's Learning Preferences Questionnaire. Descriptive statistics and chi-square tests were used to examine the associations between variables. RESULTS: Diverging and Assimilating were the preferred learning styles, while Accommodating was the most frequently identified dominant learning style. Significant associations were found between learning preferences and student satisfaction levels (p ≤ 0.05), as well as between learning preferences and GPA (p ≤ 0.05), particularly for Assimilating, Converging, and Diverging styles. CONCLUSION: The present study highlights associations that may inform the consideration of diverse, student-centered teaching strategies; however, no causal conclusions can be drawn.