Identifying Learning Styles in Students and comparing them with the Intended Curriculum in Social Studies at Fourth, Fifth and Sixth Grades of Elementary School

The purpose of this study was to identify learning styles in students and to compare them with the intended curriculum for social studies at fourth, fifth and sixth grades. The Research method was descriptive and analytical surveys. Therefore, according to the nature of the research, there were two populations, samples and sampling method. In the first part, the population were all male and female students of the fourth, fifth and sixth grade of Elementary of West Azerbaijan province (N=145045) in the academic year of 2018-2019. 1961 students (928 boys and 1033 girls) were selected for sample of study by multi-stage cluster sampling. In the second part, the population were all social studies textbooks of the fourth, fifth, and sixth grades with focusing on aims, content, teaching and learning activities and evaluation. All social studies textbooks of the fourth, fifth, and sixth grades were selected for analyzing. The gadering data tools were VARK Learning Styles Questionnaire (1998) and VARK Learning Checklists. Results showed that, the highest were related to multiple learning styles, and the least percentages were related to aural styles in students. Analyzing the curriculum components (aims, content, teaching and learning activities and evaluation) showed that in the fourth grade the style of aural was ranked first and visual style was in fifth. At fifth grade, the style of virtual was ranked first and the multiple-choice style in fifth. Finally, at the sixth grade, the reading / writing style was ranked first and visual style was in fifth. Therefore, the preferred learning style of students were multiple style, but the preferred learning style in social studies curriculum components were the aural style at the fourth and fifth grades and reading / writing style were in the sixth grade.