Identification Finance Students Learning Style through Honey and
Mumford Theory in Disruptive Era
Muhammad Andi Abdillah Triono
1
, Syahrizal Chalil Harahap
1
and Humisar Sihombing
1
1
Faculty of Economics, Universitas Negeri Medan, Medan -Indonesia
Keywords: Activist, Reflector, Theorist, and Pragmatist
Abstract: The purpose of this research is to explore students learning styles and to know better way of teaching that fit
for different needs of undergraduate finance students in Department of Management, Universitas Negeri
Medan. Honey and Mumford theory is used as the main theory to investigate factors that influence the
undergraduate students learning style in the disruptive era. Moreover, the research model was built by seven
independent variables base on students’ background and one dependent variable that verify four-
dimensional learning styles, namely, Activist, Reflector, Theorist, and Pragmatist. Furthermore, primary
data were used and analyzed by descriptive statistics and multinomial logistic regression. Moreover,
Bunbury Resilient Community Project U-4-72 questionnaire that adduce 80 items with verify four-
dimensional learning styles was used for the research questionnaire. All undergraduate finance classes at
The Department of Management, Universitas Negeri Medan were the research population and all under
graduate students that taken capital market and financial management courses were taken as the research
sample with a total of 148 students. The results revealed that 50.8 percent students have been identified as
reflector, 29.4 percent students as pragmatist, 17.5 percent as theorist, and only 2.4 percent as activist.
Moreover, students parent career has dominant affected toward students learning style with level of
significance below 0.05 in the likelihood ratio test. Based on this outcome, the paper also offers discussion,
recommendation and guideline for the future research.
1 INTRODUCTION
There is evidence from previous research that
different students have different learning style
whereas some students prefer learning through
reading, others through watching examples, etc., and
a linkage between learning styles and career choice
(Truong, 2015). Moreover, study of Weng, et al.
(2017) in multimedia material of Taekwondo proved
that students learning achievement have been
affected by students learning style. Furthermore,
study that has been conducted by Sandman (2014)
for over 1,100 undergraduate business students in
one university confirmed that students have adaptive
learning styles toward courses that they are taken
rather than an innate learning style.
Current learning system is un avoidably without
the use of technology. Cyber-physical systems have
risen from current forth industrial revolution which
disrupt all aspect of industries, academic, and even
government (Clerck & Wit, n.d.). Furthermore,
Weng, et al., (2017) confirmed in their study on
multimedia materials of Taekwondo Aerobic on
students’ attitude that multimedia-based teaching
style promotes and significantly affect students’
learning attitude. Moreover, Özyurt & Özyurt (2015)
conducted literature study on 69 articles which was
published from 2005 until 2014 about Adaptive
Educational Hypermedia (AEH) base on learning
styles reported that AEH base on learning styles
have relatively high achievement level of student
satisfaction on learning achievement.
Even though, some research publications
suggested that studying theories on student learning
styles are wasting of energy, no real scientific basis
and wasting of time, such as studies that were
conducted by Willingham, et al., (2015); An & Carr
(2017) and Kirschner (2017). However, there have
been reported over 70 theories about learning styles
that were developed over the past 30 years which
could be considered that learning style gaining
Triono, M., Harahap, S. and Sihombing, H.
Identification Finance Students Learning Style through Honey and Mumford Theory in Disruptive Era.
DOI: 10.5220/0009492401910195
In Proceedings of the 1st Unimed International Conference on Economics Education and Social Science (UNICEES 2018), pages 191-195
ISBN: 978-989-758-432-9
Copyright
c
2020 by SCITEPRESS – Science and Technology Publications, Lda. All rights reserved
191
significant interest from researchers and educators
(Truong, 2015). The scope of this research is to
identified undergraduate finance students learning
styles and investigate factors that influence student
learning styles with four-dimension which Honey
and Mumford Theory as the main conducted theory
for this research, although Özyurt & Özyurt (2015)
found that Honey and Mumford Theory was limited
study to be found.
2 THEORICAL FRAMEWORK
Although there are more than 70 theories that has
been identified which discuss student learning styles
(Truong, 2015), this research used Honey and
Mumford Theory as the main theory that was
developed in 1992 by Honey and Mumford which
based on Kolb’s work but using a different
approach. Furthermore, the theory introduced four-
dimensional learning styles, namely, activist
learning style, theorist learning style, reflector
learning style, and pragmatist learning style
(Bontchev, et al., 2018).
Activist learning style is typical of those who are
usually prefer new things and have an open idea.
Some of their activities are brainstorming, action
learning, problem solving, group discussion,
working in small group, puzzles, here and now tasks,
role-play, and competitions (Bontchev, et al., 2018;
Labib, et al., 2017).
Theorist style characterizes people who are likely
to think logically and assimilate all the facts
systematically into the problem (coherent theorist).
Their main activities are comprise the exploration of
models, applying theories, background information,
statistics, stories, theoretical connections, complex
task, and drawing information into systematic and
logical theory (Bontchev, et al., 2018; Labib, et al.,
2017).
Reflector prefer to stay at a distance and
contemplate the situation from different point of
view. The main activities comprise self-analysis
questionnaires, collect data and analysis, personality
questionnaires, time out, observing activities,
cautious and thoughtful, self-direct learning,
feedback from others, interviews, and paired
discussions (Bontchev, et al., 2018; Labib, et al.,
2017).
Pragmatist style is typical who willing to try
things and want concepts that can be applied to their
work. Some of their activities include seek out new
ideas and take the opportunity to taste them out in
the real world as soon as possible, action learning,
problem-solving, and practical applications
(Bontchev, et al., 2018; Labib, et al., 2017).
Moreover, Russell-Bennett, et al., (2016)
provides a significant evidence that using a single
universal approach as an assessment tool for
students learning outcome should be avoided
because erroneous approach could cause impairment
in students attitude and theirs learning achievement.
Furthermore, Hill, et al., (2014) ran research on
student education background toward their learning
styles and concluded that students educational
background has significant strong affected on
students learning styles. Moreover, Sarabi-Asiabar,
et al., (2014) revealed that students learning styles
has been affected by student gender.
Hence, in this sense, the study seeks to answers
to the following questions:
1. What are the most dominant undergraduate
finance students learning styles base on Honey
and Mumford Theory?
2. What factors of student background that
significantly affected student learning styles
which are base on Honey and Mumford
Theory?
3 RESEARCH METHOD
All of finance students were the study population
and students that taken two courses of finance class,
namely, financial management and capital market
were taken as sample study that comprised 148
students. Moreover, the research location was at
Department of Management, Universitas Negeri
Medan, which was conducted from 1
st
of August
2018 until 15
th
of October 2018 through intense
observation and distribute questionnaires for each
student. Furthermore, Bunbury Resilient Community
Project U-4-72 questionnaire that adduce 80 items
was modified and used as the study questionnaire to
examine the four-dimensions of student learning
styles.
This study which examines the most dominant
undergraduate finance students learning styles base
on Honey and Mumford Theory was conducted
through descriptive statistics. While, student
background factors toward student learning styles
was conducted through multinomial logistic
regression, whereas students learning styles are
signed in Y in four categorical nominal type of data
and presented in
, student living
environment is signed with X
1
in nominal, total
family members is signed with X
2
in ratio, father
career is represented with X
3
in nominal, mother
career is represented with X
4
in nominal, student
acquired of vocational education is represented with
X
5
, student acquired non-formal education is signed
with X
6
, student habit is signed with X
7
in nominal,
UNICEES 2018 - Unimed International Conference on Economics Education and Social Science
192
and student organizational activity is signed with X
8
in nominal. Therefore, the study model of
multinomial logistic regression is shown as follow:
4 ANALYSIS
148 students were analyzed in total within the scope
of this study. With the reference to the first research
question, the most dominant undergraduate finance
students learning styles base on Honey and
Mumford Theory was revealed. A summary of this
finding is presented in Table 1. Case Processing
Summary which was calculated by SPSS 18
application.
Table 1: Case Processing Summary
Case Processing Summary
N
Marginal
Percentage
Student
Learning
Styles
Activist 3 2.4%
Reflector 6
4
50.8%
Theorist 2
2
17.5%
Pragmatist 3
7
29.4%
Valid 1
26
100.0%
Missing 2
2
Total 1
48
Subpopulation 3
3
a
a. The dependent variable has only one value
observed in 20 (60.6%) subpopulations.
The table above showed that student with reflector
learning style has the highest percentages with an
amount of 50.8 percent rather than other learning
styles. Moreover, pragmatist learning style has
placed in the second highest of percentage with an
amount of 29.4 percent and has followed by theorist
learning style with sum of only 2.4 percent.
Furthermore, based on the second research
question, factors of student background that
significantly affected student learning styles which
are based on Honey and Mumford Theory was
disclose. A summary of finding is appeared in Table
2. Likelihood Ratio Tests, Table 3. Model Fitting
Information which was calculated by SPSS 18
application.
Table 2: Likelihood Ratio Tests
Likelihood Ratio Tests
Effect Model
Fitting
Criteria Likelihood Ratio Tests
-2 Log
Likelihood
of Reduced
Model Chi-Square f Sig.
Intercept 126.830 11.306 .010
X3 125.733 10.210 .017
X4 123.908 8.384 .039
The chi-square statistic is the difference in -2 log-
likelihoods between the final model and a reduced model.
The reduced model is formed by omitting an effect from the
final model. The null hypothesis is that all parameters of
that effect are 0.
Table 3: Model Fitting Information
Model Fitting Information
Model Model Fitting
Criteria Likelihood Ratio Tests
-2 Log Likelihood
Chi-
Square df Sig.
Intercept
Only
130.318
Final 115.523 14.794 6 .022
The Table 2 showed that only father career (X3) and
mother career has significant level below 0.05,
which mean that based on statistical testing both
variables have been proven with confidence interval
of more than 95 percent. Moreover, Table 3. showed
that the model which was built by both variables is
significantly measured below 0.05, which means
that father career (X3) and mother career (X4) could
become predictors toward undergraduate finance
students learning styles at Department of
Management, Universitas Negeri Medan.
Identification Finance Students Learning Style through Honey and Mumford Theory in Disruptive Era
193
Furthermore, the parameter predictors could
be seen in Table 4 and Table 5 that are shown
below:
Table. 4: Parameter estimates
Learning styles 1
a
B Std. Error Wald
Activist Intercept -1.070 1.101 .945
X3 -.651 .835 .608
X4 -.129 .334 .150
Reflector Intercept 1.024 .370 7.675
X3 .249 .104 5.746
X4 -.363 .131 7.651
Pragmatist Intercept .625 .395 2.504
X3 .184 .110 2.803
X4 -.319 .141 5.161
a. The reference category is: Theorist.
Table 5: Parameter estimates
df Sig. Exp(B)
95% Confidence Interval for
Exp(B)
Lower Bound Upper Bound
1 .331
1 .436 .521 .101 2.681
1 .699 .879 .457 1.691
1 .006
1 .017 1.283 1.046 1.573
1 .006 .695 .538 .900
1 .114
1 .094 1.202 .969 1.490
1 .023 .727 .552 .957
According to Table 4 above, the construction model
of multinomial logistics that identified significant
below level of 0.05 which could be seen on reflector
relatively toward theorist, and pragmatist relatively
toward theorist learning style is written as follow:
1.0240.249
0.363
0.319
Table 6: Parameter estimates
Student Learning
Styles
a
B Std. Error Wald
A
ctivist Intercept -1.695 1.079 2.468
X3 -.835 .834 1.003
X4 .190 .335 .322
Reflector Intercept .399 .294 1.843
X3 .065 .070 .870
X4 -.044 .114 .149
Theorist Intercept -.625 .395 2.504
X3 -.184 .110 2.803
X4 .319 .141 5.161
a. The reference category is: Pragmatist.
Table 7: Parameter estimates
df Sig. Exp(B)
95% Confidence Interval for
Exp(B)
Lower Bound Upper Bound
1 .116
1 .317 .434 .085 2.224
1 .570 1.209 .627 2.331
1 .175
1 .351 1.068 .931 1.225
1 .699 .957 .765 1.197
1 .114
1 .094 .832 .671 1.032
1 .023 1.376 1.045 1.813
According to Table 7 above, the construction model
of multinomial logistics that identified significant
below level of 0.05 which could be seen only on
theorist relatively toward pragmatist learning style is
written as follow:
0.319
5 RESULTS
Reflector learning styles has been identified as the
highest learning styles among the finance students
with amount of 50.8 percent. Which means that 50.8
percent of finance students have learning style
characteristic stay at a distance and contemplate the
situation from different point of view. Therefore,
more than 50 percent of learning outcome could be
leverage if lectors or instructors considers activities
such as comprise self-analysis questionnaires,
collect data and analysis, personality questionnaires,
time out, observing activities, cautious and
thoughtful, self-direct learning, feedback from
others, interviews, and paired discussions
(Bontchev, et al., 2018; Labib, et al., 2017).
Moreover, students parent career has been
proven as influential factors toward the development
of students learning styles. Furthermore, the model
of factors that significantly proven below 0.05 only
1.0240.249
0.363
,
Which means that if X3 equal zero and X4 equal zero, a
group of students that has reflector learning style has
greater chances 2.78 times than a group of students that
has theorist learning style.
6 CONCLUSIONS
By gaining more awareness toward students learning
styles, lectures could leverage the outcomes of their
student’s achievement and it offers them learning
design that tailored to the students needs. This study
has proven that more than 50 percent of the
undergraduate finance students at the Department of
Management, Universitas Negeri Medan has
UNICEES 2018 - Unimed International Conference on Economics Education and Social Science
194
reflective learning styles in the era of disruptive –
industrial revolution 4.0. Finance lectures and tutors
should design learning material mostly base on
reflective student characteristic. Furthermore,
grouping of students in class activities is also
essential base on their style of learning. Moreover,
parent involvement in developing student learning
styles has been proven.
Hence, there are wide opportunity for future
researcher to gain more insight on learning style.
Moreover, study on learning style are mostly base on
student at school, which mean that theory of learning
style could have more opportunity to analyze on
other part of academics such as how a learning style
develop on small and medium enterprises or how
learning style develop for a group of pensions.
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