Matching/Mismatching of Teaching and Learning Styles; and its Effects on Students' Academic Achievement at Tertiary Level

Abstract

In the recent past various researches have been conducted regarding the concept of matching/mismatching of teaching and learning styles; and its role in teaching learning process. Some of these researches emphasize that matching of teaching and learning styles in institutional academic programs help in improving students‘ academic performance and developing their interest and motivation towards learning. However some researchers oppose any such role and argue that there is no solid empirical evidence to conform to this idea of teaching learning styles. The researcher, therefore, decided to examine the relation of teaching learning styles with students‘ academic performance by conducting this causal-comparative research to put forth some further evidences across Pakistani culture. The overall purpose of the study was to explore the effect of matching/mismatching of teaching and learning styles on students‘ academic achievement in higher education. The study was causal- comparative in nature to study the cause and effect relationship between matching/mismatching of teaching learning styles and students‘ academic achievement. The sample for this study consisted of 120 teachers and 240 students of BS-4 year program in four disciplines (Physics, Chemistry, Botany and Mathematics) from six public sector universities of Khyber Pakhtunkhwa. Felder-Solomon Index of Learning Style (FSILS) was used for the identification of learning styles of students while Teaching Style Instrument developed by Letele et al. (2011) was used to identify teachers‘ teaching styles. These styles of students and teachers were then analyzed to see if they matched or mismatched. In order to see the effect of matching/mismatching on students‘ academic achievement, the final score of the students in the subjects taught by the teachers participating in the study was considered. The collected data was then tabulated and organized across various tables. Data analysis was made with the help of SPSS (Statistical Package for Social sciences). For comparing means, t-test for independent samples was used. The results showed that Visual learning style was the most favorite learning style followed by Balanced and Sensing learning style. Teaching style analysis showed that Visual teaching style was the most favorite style followed by Abstract and Sequential teaching styles. Group statistics indicated 42.75% matched cases and 57.25% mismatched cases. T-test for independent samples revealed a significant difference (p=.000) between the mean scores of matched group and mismatched group of students; and it was concluded that the students with matched learning styles performed significantly better than students with mismatched learning styles. In light of the findings, recommendations were advanced for teachers, students, educationists, researchers and policy makers.