Understanding Business Majors' Learning Styles.

Recently, business education programs have experienced a decline in enrollment and an increase in attrition. To understand these issues and recommend solutions, the learning styles of 503 first-year business majors at an urban community college were examined. The results demonstrated that: (a) 94% of the participants were analytic learners; (b) age correlated positively with grade point average: (c) significant gender differences were exhibited for the elements of visual/text, temperature, evening preference, and conformity; and (d) significant geographic origin differences emerged for the learning-style elements of visual/picture, verbal/kinesthetic, tactual/kinesthetic, analytic/global, structure, sound, small group, and late morning/early afternoon. Introduction In 2000, 42% of all undergraduate college students were enrolled in public two-year community colleges, which typically service low income, academically under-prepared learners, many of whom have limited English language skills (National Center for Educational Statistics, 2003). Although admittance into most community colleges is easy, research has demonstrated that a significant number of students who enter these institutions do not complete their desired goals or credentials (Berkner, Horn, &. Clune, 2000). In fact, Tinto (1993) has asserted that more students drop out of community colleges than graduate. More specifically, recent research has revealed a consistent decline in enrollment in business programs, especially in the field of accounting where students cite the rigorous, tedious nature of the discipline as a reason for not choosing it (Barsky, Catanach, &. Kozlowski, 2003). Thus, to address the issues of decreased enrollment and increased attrition in community college business programs, the researchers examined the learning styles of 503 first-year business majors at an urban community college. The goal of the study was to determine the best way for these students to learn new and difficult information so that business educators can modify their instructional methods to improve achievement and increase retention. What are learning styles? According to Dunn and Dunn (1993), learning style is the way students begin to concentrate on, process, internalize, and remember new and difficult information. Individual preferences differ significantly, and the stronger the preference, the more important it is to provide compatible instructional strategies (Braio, Dunn, Beasley, Quinn, &. Buchanan, 1997). Most college professors do not realize that less than one-third of their students can remember three-fourths of what they hear or see (Dunn, 2003). However, many of these same pupils remember well when they learn tactually by using their hands or kinesthetically through whole body movement. Nonetheless, many tactual and kinesthetic students cannot succeed because they are expected to sit passively and listen when they, instead, crave active engagement to learn effectively. The Dunn and Dunn LearningStyle Model specifies 21 elements that influence how people learn new and difficult academic material (Dunn & Dunn, 1992, 1993; Dunn, Dunn, & Perrin, 1994). These 21 elements are divided into five stimuli (a) environmental, (b) emotional, (c) sociological, (d) physiological, and (e) psychological. If learners' styles are met by addressing their preferences for these elements, significant improvement in college students' achievement can be obtained (Ingham, 2003; Lenehan, Dunn, Ingham, Murray, &. Signer, 1994; Nelson, Dunn, Griggs, Primavera, Fitzpatrick, Bacillious, &. Miller, 1993; Rochford, 2003, 2004a, 2004b, 2004c). An instructor needs to carefully consider these stimuli when introducing new and complex concepts. The environmental stimulus emphasizes that some students prefer to learn (a) with or without sound, (b) in bright or dim light, (c) in a warm or cool room, and (d) in a room with either a formal or informal design. …