AN EXPLORATORY STUDY OF PREFERRED LEARNING STYLES OF VISUALLY IMPAIRED CHILDREN

Abstract

The research was designed to explore the learning styles most preferred by the children with visual impairment. A survey was conducted to collect information from 100 students with visual impairment comprising 50 male and 50 females studying in classes six to ten at government special education schools for visually impaired in districts Rawalpindi and Islamabad selected through simple random technique. The younger version of VARK questionnaire containing four sub scales; visual, oral, read/write & kinesthetic learning styles was used as a research tool. To identify difficulties (if any) in administration, comprehension and language of tool for the present study, a pilot testing was conducted on ten boys and girls. Results of this study showed that the reading/writing style of learning is the most preferred learning style by students with visual impairment. Gender differences were not found significant on sub scales visual and oral, whereas boys and girls were found significantly different on two learning styles; i) read/write, and ii) kinesthetic. The study concludes that reading/writing style of learning is the most preferred style by the visually impaired students and the visually impaired boys also take interest in kinesthetic style of learning. The study recommends the teachers of visually impaired students to opt the teaching strategies as per their preferred style of learning; i.e. reading/writing style of learning.
Key Words: preferred learning styles, children with visual impairment, VARK model of learning styles