Preferred Learning Styles of the 28 Grade Five Students of Manalupang-San Vicente Elementary School: Basis for Improving Academic Performance

Abstract

INTRODUCTION

Every classroom is a place for growth and development of individually unique students. One of the aspects that schools target to develop is the learners' academic performance. This research explores the students' learning styles preferences as one factor that can be taken into consideration as the academic performance of the subject of this study decreases over the last two school years. It also looks into whether or not the students' learning style preferences match the teachers' teaching styles.

METHODS

A multiple method design was used. The researcher surveyed 28 Grade 5 Students and conducted a series of interviews with 3 subject teachers of Manalupang-San Vicente Elementary School in Bauan, Batangas, Philippines. The data were collected through quantitative analysis. The researcher utilized the VAK learning style assessment tool which is composed of 48 questions to find out their learning style preferences.

RESULTS

From a General Pupil Average (GPA) of 89.57% in SY 2016-2017, the class GPA decreased to 86.04% in 2017-2018. After accomplishing the VAK learning style assessment tool, out of 28 student-respondents, 21 preferred Visual learning style while 5 chose Kinesthetic learning style. The remaining students have Auditory, Visual-Auditory, and Visual-Kinesthetic preferences. Contrary to this, the 3 teacher-respondents perceived the pupils to be mostly Auditory, thus, despite the utilization of various teaching strategies, the teachers used those that addressed the Auditory learning styles preferences more often. Some activities that could have addressed Visual learning style preferences were not frequently done in class, thus, a mismatch of students' preference and teachers' styles.

DISCUSSIONS

The results invite teachers to consider learning style preferences in tailoring classroom instructions. Through this, teaching styles may be matched with the learning styles and eventually contribute to improving academic performance. Assessing the students' learning style preferences using the appropriate tools could be the first step. Since preferences change, an inventory of students' preferred learning styles can be used to keep track of their current choices.