The Journal of Medical Education and Development

Introduction: Learning styles influence the methods and ways of obtaining information and lead to the variety of information seeking behaviors from the searchers. This study aimed to investigate the relationship between learning styles and information seeking behavior in master degree students of medical science in Shahid Sadoughi University of Medical Sciences in Yazd.

Methods: This study was a cross-sectional analytic study. The population of the study was 601 master degree students of Shahid Sadoughi University of Medical Sciences in Yazd in 2013-2015. They were all freshmen. The sample size of 234 students was determined using Cochran formula. Data were collected by two questionnaires (Kolb questionnaire and researcher-made seeking behavior questionnaire). The validity of questionnaires was confirmed by a panel of experts and their reliability was confirmed by Cronbach`s alpha. Data analysis was done by inferential statistics and statistical software SPSS (version 18). Measuring the significant relationship between learning styles and information seeking behavior was done with Pierson correlation coefficient. The significant difference between learning styles and information seeking behavior in terms of gender and faculty was examined by Fisher`s test.

Results: Learning styles had effect on information seeking behavior; also correlation coefficients between the learning styles and information seeking behavior had significant difference, but there was no difference in terms of faculty.

Conclution: Recognition of learning styles and including it into designing of information systems may increase system`s interactivity that it may lead to have better and faster accessibility to information resources.