Abstract:
The purpose of this study was to investigate the relationship between
learning styles and academic achievement in postsecondary education. It was
the intent of the study to establish if there was a relationship between student
learning style, teacher style, learner/teacher matching and/or mismatching,
student gender and age, to the academic grades of students. This study was
basically a replication of a study completed by Mary J. Thompson and Terrance
P. O'Brien in 1991 on two campuses of a southeast community college in the
United States. In the present study, 243 students and 18 teachers from two
different campuses of a community college in the Province of Ontario
participated in the research. All participants were administered the Gregorc
Style Delineator and students identified by program, age and gender. Data
were tested by two analysis of variance (ANOVA) models. In the first
ANOVA model considered in this study, significant main effects were
manifested in regard to the teaching style, age group and gender. With the
exception of gender, these findings were very similiar to those of the original
study. Duncan's multiple range test revealed that Concrete Sequential (CS)
teachers assigned significantly lower grades than did teachers dominant in any
of the other three learning styles. Post hoc testing revealed that students 25
years of age and older received significantly higher grades than did younger
students. Female students also received significantly higher grades than did
male students. In the second ANOVA model student/teacher learning style
match/mismatch did emerge as a significant main effect. However, Duncan's
multiple range test and Chi square analysis did not substantiate the relationship.
Forty-eight references are cited.
