Learning Styles of Grade 10 Students in Mathematics: A Basis for the Development of Instructional Activities and Programs

Abstract

INTRODUCTION

Everyone has a distinctive way of learning varying from the preference of learners. Students use various learning styles to understand lessons and perform a good performance towards the subjects. Learning style is the cognitive, effective and psychological behaviors of a person which are primary indicators of how learners see, interact with, and react to the learning environment. Students have distinctive approaches to learning lessons under this subject. Some tend to prefer a learning approach which is different from others. However, some use a learning style similar to the rest. Using the VARK learning model developed by Neil Fleming, learning styles can be in the form of visual, aural, read/write, and kinesthetic. In this study, the learning styles will be served as the basis for the development of instructional activities and programs.

METHODS

This study employed the descriptive design as a research method. The subjects of this paper involved 100 Grade 10 students who underwent the subject during the academic year 2017-2018. The questionnaire contained the four learning styles under the VARK learning model of Neil Fleming. The statistical tools utilized were frequency/percentage, weighted mean, composite mean, and ANOVA.

RESULTS

The findings revealed that VARK learning styles were used by the respondents in different areas of the subject particularly the aural learning style which affects the performance of students in the subject. It was also found that there was no significant difference between the academic performance of students and their learning styles in terms of visual, read/write, and kinesthetic and had no significant difference between the academic performance of students and their learning styles in terms of aural. Development programs were proposed to address the problem upon the results.

DISCUSSIONS

The results of the study imply that a club/organization could be established to collaborate with one another as a way of improving the academic performance of students which relies on the use of aural learning style. Moreover, tutorials of lessons covered in Mathematics 10 could be conducted by teachers and student officers at least once a month open to all Grade 10 students that focus not only on visual, read/write, and kinesthetic learning styles but also on aural. Development of classroom discussions such as effective voice volume of teachers, recitations, and use of sound or audio clips as tools for instruction should also be given emphasis.