Relation between the learning styles and the attitudes of the vocational health high school students toward mathematics

The aim of this study is to examine the learning styles of 2007-2008 Education Year students of Bolu Vocational Health High Schools and also determining their attitude towards mathematics, then setting up a relation between these attitudes and providing solutions for them.Based on this aim, the answers for the following questions are sought.1-Which learning styles do the Vocational Health High School students have?2-Is there a reasonable difference between the learning styles of Vocational Health High School students and,a) Gendersb) Departmentsc) Classesd) Different income groups3-Is there a reasonable difference between the attitudes of Vocational Health High School students toward mathematics and,a) Gendersb) Departmentsc) Classesd) Different income groups4- Is there a reasonable difference between learning styles and the attitudes of Vocational Health High School students toward mathematics?This search has been carried out among the 264 volunteer students from the 9th and 10th year of the Vocational Health High Schools in Bolu. In this search; for determining the learning styles of students ?Kolb Inventory of Learning Style? developed by 1985 by Kolb and then tested its accuracy by translating in Turkish in 1993 by Aşkar and Akkoyunlu, for determining the attitude toward mathematics ?mathematics attitude scale? which is improved and tested for its accuracy by Aşkar in 1986, and for determining the personal information of the students ?personal information form? are used.Statistical analysis of the data in this search are made by using a computer package programme, which is SPSS (statistical package for the social sciences). In the analysis of data, in terms of search goal; numbers, frequencies, and percentages, the square test (X²), calculation of average and standard point; full digit, Levenne, Scheffe and t-test in the comparison of two sets; one-way variant analysis (Anova) in the comparison of the sets with a number of more than two, are benefitted from. Among the variants, a 0.05 meaningfulness level is considered to determine if there is a certain difference or not.At the end of the search, it is determmined that the students attending Vocational Health High School have at the same number of converger, diverger, assimilator and accomodator type of learning styles. While male students mostly prefer transforming and synthesizing learning style, female students prefer distinquishing and adapting learning styles. According to the departments, adapting for emergency medical technicianship and environmental health technicianship, transforming for medical secretaryship and nursing, and synthesizing learning styles for laboratory technicianship are used mostly. While most of the 9th class students have transforming and distinquishing learning style and least of them have adapting learning style; 10th class students have mostly adapting learning style and the least number of students with synthesizing learning style.It is determined that attitudes of the vocational health high school students toward mathematics is in the middle level and show difference according to the departments. The most positive attitude toward mathematics has been showed by nursing students and the least by medical secretaryship students. The attitude of the male and female students toward mathematics according to the gender are observed as the same. According to the class level, it is seen that 9th year students have more positive attitude than 10th year students. It is determined that students with different learning styles show difference in their attitude toward mathematics.The students having transforming learning style have more positive attitude than the ones having distinquishing and adapting learning styles. There hasn?t been found any reasonable difference between the income levels of the students and their learning styles. It is seen that the attitude levels of the students with different incomes toward mathematics are the same.Key words: Learning, Style, Learning Style, Attitude, High School Stuents, Attitudes Toward Mathematics.