A STUDY IN INDICES OF DISCREPANCY BETWEEN STUDENTS’ LEARNING STYLES AND THEIR ACTUAL GRADE ACHIEVEMENT AT MASTERS’ LEVEL

Abstract

A Study in Indices of Discrepancy between Students ‘Learning Styles and Their Actual Grade Achievement at Masters’ Level Every person has a preferred way of learning that is called Learning style. It is a characteristic way of reaching to the solution of the particular problem. The present study was conducted to find out the indices of discrepancy between students’ learning styles and their actual grade achievement at the masters’ level. It was to find out which type of learners is better in terms of actual grade achievement. The mean difference was also to be found out between learning styles of male and female students, urban and rural students, mean difference due to difference of fathers’ academic qualification, mothers’ academic qualification, and parents’ monthly income. All the students of Social Sciences and Management Sciences studying in third and fourth semester in public sector universities of Rawalpindi and Islamabad constituted the population which was two thousand and seventy six. Eight hundred and twenty students were chosen as sample. The Stratified Random Sampling Technique was employed for selecting the sample. The Kolb’s Learning Style Inventory Version III was used for assessing learning styles of students. The students’ first two semesters’ results were used in order to find out the grade achievement. Data were analyzed by using, percentages, T -test, and one way ANOVA. After analysis it was found out that Divergent learning style was learning style of majority of student irrespective of the department or subject. It was concluded that there was a significant mean difference of learning styles in grade achievement at Masters’ level. The divergent, assimilative, accommodative, and convergent learners acquired higher grades respectively. It was also found out that residential location, academic qualification of mothers, and monthly income of parents brought significant mean difference in learning styles of students. No significant mean difference was found between learning style of male and female students, Along with that no significant mean difference was observed between learning styles due to academic qualification of fathers.