Abstract

This study aims to determine the dominant learning styles of pre-service physics teachers and to examine them in terms of variables such as gender, information and communication technologies skills, academic achievement and type of motivation. Survey model was used.The sample composed of 50 pre-service physics teachers. The data were collected for this study from three sources; demographic information (DI), Learning Style Inventory (LSI), “Information and Communication Technologies Skills” (ICT skills). 1999 version of Learning Styles inventory developed by Kolb and adapted to Turkish by having the studies of validity and reliability by Evin Gencel was used. ICT skills developed by Wilkinson et al., which was prepared by Haznedar through adapting some items from the attitude scale aimed at e-learning, which made it more convenient and up-to-date for Turkey. The data were analyzed by using frequency, percent value, mean scores, standard deviation, Chi-square test, independent samples t ANOVA. The results show that general learning styles preferred by the pre-service physics teachers were “Diverging”. Considering this finding, it is observed that this study is different from the studies in literature. When the literature is taken into consideration, it appears that prospective teachers generally prefer ‘assimilating’ and ‘converging’ learning style. According to another finding of the study, the learning styles were not related to gender, type of motivation, information and communication technologies skills (ICT skills), and academic achievement.

Key words: Learning styles, pre-service physics teachers, motivation, information and communication technologys.