European Journal of Educational Research Volume 7, Issue 4, 935 - 940. ISSN: 2165-8714 http://www.eu-jer.com/ The Mathematics Learning Styles of Vocational College Students Serpil Yorganci * Ataturk University, TURKEY Received: September 9, 2018 ▪ Revised: October 8, 2018 ▪ Accepted: October 9, 2018 Abstract: The researcher investigated the mathematics learning styles of vocational college students during fall 2017 and spring 2018. 94 students enrolled in the vocational college of a public university completed the questionnaire "How Do I Actually Learn?" developed by Forster. Scale has four learning styles: reflective, inquisitive, diligent and user. The results of the research revealed that the most preferred learning model was user learning style in mathematics learning. Most of the students preferred to learn mathematics by writing the solutions, and reading through their notes or work. There were also statistically significant differences in mathematics learning styles among students according to their academic achievement. According to the results, students with high level of success were more inquisitive than students with low levels. Keywords: Learning styles, mathematics learning styles, mathematics education, vocational college. To cite this article: Yorganci, S. (2018). The Mathematics learning styles of vocational college students. European Journal of Educational Research, 7(4), 935-940. doi: 10.12973/eu-jer.7.4.935 Introduction Although its conceptual roots have been in the field of psychology (Cassidy, 2004), important research on learning styles has been carried out over the last forty years in the area of education. Educators have bel ieved that “every person had a learning style and persons' learning styles were as individual as their signatures” (Dunn, Beaudry & Klavas, 2002). It is generally acknowledged that learning styles indicate the way in which “each learner begins to concentra te on, process and retain new and difficult information” (Dunn, Dunn & Perrin, 1994, p. 12). There are different definitions of learning style in literature. Grasha (1996) defined learning style as “personal qualities that influence a students’ ability to acquire information to interact with peers and the teacher, and otherwise to participate in learning experiences”. Negovan (2010) considered that the learning style referred to the organization and control of the strategies and knowledge acquisition and was configured by the cognitive, emotional and personality characteristics of the learner. Felder and Silverman (1988) described learning style as an individual’s preferred way of acquiring, retaining and processing information. Learning styles have been assessed in different ways based on various theoretical learning models. Felder-Silverman, Honey and Murnford, Kolb, Dunn and Dunn’s VAK (Visual, Auditory, and Kinesthetic) and VARK (Visual, Aural, Read or Write and Kinesthetic) theories reflect the most common frameworks in the field of education. Some learning styles theories are based on preferences for certain types of cognitive processing (Honey & Mumford, 1992; Kolb 1984), while others are based on specific areas of personality (Felder-Silverman, 1988). An important research that characterizes students’ learning preferences in mathematics is also proposed by Forster (1999). Forster (1999) considers a model according to four fundamental dimensions helping educators to plan learning environments in mathematics course (Idil, Narli & Aksoy, 2016): reflective, inquisitive, diligent, and user. The reflective dimension represents the manner in which individuals tend to learn by responding to questions in class work. The students with reflective learning style are characterized by their ability to answer the teachers’ and their friends' questions and to explain her/his works to the class. The inquisitive dimension represents the manner in which individuals tend to learn by asking for an explanation in whole-class work. The students with inquisitive learning style are characterized by their ability to ask the teacher whether he agrees with her/his ideas in whole-class work, ask for an explanation in whole-class work and ask the teacher and friends to explain things. * Correspondence: Serpil Yorganci, Ataturk University, Erzurum Vocational College, Erzurum, Turkey. Email: serpil.yorganci@atauni.edu.tr