Development of VARK Learning Styles Assessment Instrument for Secondary School Students

This study developed and validated the VARK Learning Style Inventory for Secondary School Students (VARK-LSI-SS) to assess learning preferences across Visual (V), Auditory (A), Read/Write (R), and Kinesthetic (K) modalities. Using a research and development (R&D) approach, the study adapted 4-D model integrated with the Oriondo and Dallo-Antonio framework. The instrument was administered to 278 secondary school students. The participants were selected through multistage sampling across various school types and performance levels. Content validity was confirmed via Aiken’s V analysis (V = 0.87). Exploratory Factor Analysis supported the four-factor structure, retaining factors with eigenvalues ≥1, explaining 65.6% of the variance. Reliability analyses showed high internal consistency, with Composite Reliability ranging from 0.75 to 0.85 and AVE values between 0.53 and 0.71. Fleiss’ Kappa (κ = 0.18–0.32) indicated fair to moderate inter-rater reliability. The findings support VARK-LSI-SS as a valid, reliable tool for assessing VARK learning styles in secondary education. The study recommends its adoption in experimental and longitudinal research to explore its impact on academic performance, retention, and instructional effectiveness.