The analysis of the teachers' learning styles

The aim of this study is to analyze the teachers' learning styles and to determine whether they differ according to different variables. The relational survey method was used in the study. The population of the study consists of teachers working in Tokat province. The sample of the study consists of 794 teachers selected by simple random sampling and working in primary and secondary schools in Tokat city centre, districts, towns and village schools. "Personal Information Form" prepared by the researcher to determine the personal information of primary education teachers such as gender, school location, seniority, educational status and branch and "Vermunt's Learning Styles Inventory (120-question version)" which was adapted to Turkish by Erginer (2012) were used in order to collect the data. These data were then analyzed using SPSS program. Vermunt defined four components as "Processing Strategies, Regulation Strategies, Learning Orientations and Mental Models of Learning" in order to reveal learning characteristics. Each item in the Vermunt's Learning Styles Inventory was associated with these components and four learning styles were defined according to the scores obtained. These are "Meaning Directed", Application Directed", "Reproduction Directed" and "Undirected" learning styles. The findings obtained in the study are as follows. The dominant learning style of teachers for "Processing Strategies" component is "Application Directed", the dominant learning style of teachers for "Regulation Strategies" component is "Meaning Directed", the dominant learning style of teachers for "Learning Orientations" component is "Application Directed", and the dominant learning style of teachers for "Mental Models of Learning" component is "Meaning Oriented". Considering the gender factor, there are significant differences in favour of female teachers in general. The female teachers have dominantly "Reproduction Directed" learning style for the component "Processing and Regulation strategies" and have "Meaning Directed" and "Application Directed" learning style for the component "Mental Models of Learning". Considering "Learning Orientations" there are significant differences in favour of male teachers. Because of these differences, they have dominantly "Undirected" learning style for the component "Learning Orientations". According to the differences that appear due to the locations of the schools, the teachers working in the city centre usually have "Meaning Directed", "Application Directed" and "Reproduction Directed" learning style. On the other hand, the teachers working in the towns and villages have "Undirected" learning style. When we consider the seniority of the teachers, it can be seen that teachers with more than five years of seniority dominantly have "Meaning, Application and Reproduction Directed" learning styles for "Processing Strategies" component. On the other hand, new (inexperienced) teachers have usually "Undirected" learning style. Teachers with more than five years of seniority dominantly have "Application Directed" learning style for the component "Regulation Strategies". For the component "Learning Orientations", teachers with more than five years of seniority dominantly have "Meaning Directed", "Application Directed" and "Reproduction Directed" learning styles. They also dominantly have "Meaning Directed", Application Directed" and "Reproduction Directed" learning styles for the component "Mental Models of Learning" When it is considered about the educational status of the teachers, there are significant differences for the component "Processing Strategies" in favour of the teachers who graduated from the education institutes, associate degree programmes and teacher education schools and they are found to have "Reproduction Directed" learning style. For the component "Regulation Strategies", there are significant differences in favour of the teachers graduated from education institutes, associate degree programmes and teacher education schools and they are found to have "Application Directed" learning style. For the component "Mental Models of Learning", there are significant differences in favour of the teachers graduated from education institutes, associate degree programmes and teacher education schools and they are found to have "Reproduction Directed" learning style. According to the branches of teachers, there was a significant difference in favour of branch teachers for the "Processing Strategies" component. It was seen that dominant learning style of branch teachers is "Meaning Directed" learning style. According to "Regulation Strategies ", the dominant learning styles of the class teachers are "Reproduction Directed" and "Undirected" learning styles. According to the "Learning Orientations" component, the dominant learning style of class teachers is "Undirected" learning style. According to the "Mental Models of Learning" no statistically significant difference was found. When we consider about the teachers' seniority, educational status and the location of the schools, we can see that senior teachers graduated from education institutes and teacher education schools. Moreover, senior teachers have generally been working at the schools in the city centre. It was seen that learning styles of senior teachers, the teachers working in the city centres and the teachers graduated from education institutes and teacher education schools are generally the same and this shows that the results are consistent. Significant differences were found in favour of female teachers, senior teachers and class teachers in this study. The reasons for these differences can be investigated through new studies. Academic achievement and intellectual development are thought to be closely related to the style of learning. By providing in-service training to teachers, awareness can be made about learning styles and their effectiveness. Keywords: learning style, teacher, Vermunt learning style inventory