The relationship between physiological learning styles, creativity, and academic achievement among students at Birjand University of Medical Sciences during the academic year 2013-2014

The sublime objective of higher education at all educational levels is to promote the creativity power and academic achievement in university students to which learning style is the complementary half. This study aimed to investigate the relationship between physiological learning styles، creativity، and academic achievement among students at Birjand University of Medical Sciences during 2013-14 academic year. This correlational study included 322 students who were selected by randomized stratified sampling. Kolbe''s standard physiological learning style questionnaire and Abedi''s 60-item creativity questionnaire were used to collect data and students'' total score means were used to determine their academic achievement. The data were analyzed in SPSS (Version 14) using Pearson''s correlation، ANOVA، and independent t test at the significant level of p<0. 05. The total mean scores of female and male students were 16. 21±2. 16 and 15. 1±2. 76 respectively. There was a significant relationship between students'' learning styles (visual style، audio style)، creativity، and their academic achievement (p<0. 05). However، there was no significant relationship between movement learning style and academic achievement (p>0. 05). Creativity and academic achievement did not correlate significantly in terms of faculty and gender (p>0. 05). Given the result، students are recommended to get familiar with physiological learning styles such that they can adopt the style (s) appropriate for them. Professors should also pay attention to learning styles at the time of teaching.