The Van Hiele Geometric Thinking Levels and Learning Styles of Undergraduate Students

Abstract

This study reveals the relationship between the Van Hiele geometric thinking skills and the learning styles of undergraduate students. This study, designed following the comparative relational survey model, used the Kolb learning style inventory and the Van Hiele geometric thinking test as two different data collection tools to determine the participants’ Van Hiele geometric thinking skills and learning style preferences. 444 university students participated in this research; 229 were females, and 225 were males. The students’ age varies between 17 and 36, and the average age is 20.83. According to Kolb’s classification, the university students’ learning style preferences were divided into four groups: divergent, assimilator, accommodator, and converger. As a result of the study, university students’ preferred learning styles were converger, assimilator, divergent, and accommodator. Additionally, this study revealed that the number of university students at levels 1 (analysis) and 2 (informal deduction) constituted the vast majority of participants in terms of Van Hiele’s geometric thinking levels. This research showed that convergent learners had the highest mean score on the Van Hiele geometric thinking test, while divergent learners had the lowest mean score on the Van Hiele geometric thinking test (VHGTT). Furthermore, the one-way analysis of variance revealed a statistically significant difference in students’ VHGTT scores according to their learning style preferences. The Least Significant Difference (LSD) test showed that converger and assimilator learners had significantly higher mean scores on the VHGTT than divergent learners. Based on these significant results, the theoretical and practical implications are discussed, providing directions for future research.