THE CORRELATION BETWEEN VISUAL, AUDITORY, AND KINESTHETIC (VAK) LEARNING STYLES ON LEARNING INDEPENDENCE OF 8TH GRADE STUDENTS IN STATE JUNIOR HIGH SCHOOLS IN YOGYAKARTA CITY, INDONESIA

Learning styles are complex ways in which students most effectively understand, process, store, and remember what they are trying to learn. Students who know their type of learning style can make it easier for them to choose and sort out the right learning resources so that they can support students' independence in learning and help students develop metacognitive skills, namely the ability to understand and regulate their own learning process or with the term self-regulated learning. This research aims to: 1) Describe students' learning styles; 2) describe students' learning independence; and 3) analyze the correlation between students' learning styles and students' learning independence. The research method used is quantitative research of correlational type with associative method. This research was conducted at State Junior High Schools 14 of Yogyakarta and State Junior High Schools 15 of Yogyakarta. The study population was 8th grade students with a sample size of 79 students. Data collection techniques and instruments used questionnaires designed based on learning styles (VAK). The results showed that: 1) Students' learning styles are dominated by visual learning styles as many as 47 students, auditory 23 students, and kinesthetic 9 students. 2) learning independence with a presentation above the average 7.9%, average 19%, below average 30.02%, and low 9.48% so it can be concluded that the learning independence of 8th grade students is below average. 3) The chi-square statistical test shows (chi-square = 3.774, df = 6, p = 0.707) from the results it can be concluded that there is no significant relationship between "learning style" and "learning independence". Article visualizations