Exploring learning styles, instructional preferences, and mathematics achievement among secondary school students in delta north senatorial district, Nigeria.

Abstract

Countries across the world have embarked on curriculum revision in efforts to try and improve the teaching and learning of mathematics. There has been much interest in Africa, particularly in how mathematics could be made more accessible and understandable to learners, so that the countries could benefit from a more highly skilled workforce. One aspect that has received interest is that of learning styles and whether learners who express preferences for certain learning styles perform better than some others who have different learning style preferences. In this study, I set out to investigate the relationship between learning style preferences and the mathematics achievement of senior high school graduates in Nigeria. Furthermore, the study looks at the extent to which gender and age are related to learning styles and mathematics achievement. In trying to get a more in-depth picture. I further looked at students’ and teachers’ views of the relationship between learning style preferences and mathematics achievement as well as instructional styles and achievement. The study used a mixed-methods sequential explanatory design approach, where the quantitative data was obtained first, and then the qualitative data. The participants in the study were 171 graduating senior secondary school learners and three mathematics teachers from Delta State in Nigeria, from three schools. The learners completed Kolb’s learning style inventory as well as a mathematics achievement test comprising both multiple-choice and open-ended items. Sixteen of the learner participants were selected for interviews, by trying to get a distribution across the different learning styles, genders, and levels of achievement. The study complied with all the ethical protocols of the University of KwaZulu-Natal, and I was granted ethical clearance to conduct the research. The interviews were semi-structured and probed their learners about their preferred learning styles in learning mathematics as well as the teacher’s instructional styles that they preferred and how these influenced their achievement in mathematics. Similarly, the teachers were probed about the differences in learning styles that they may have noticed and achieved, as well as the instructional styles they preferred and why they did so. The quantitative data generated from the learning styles inventory as well as the mathematics achievement was transcribed into Excel. The inventory was analyzed as directed by the Kolb’s learning style studies. This allowed me to characterize each student in terms of four learning styles- Accommodators; Divergers; Assimilators and Convergers. The achievement test was marked by an expert in mathematics. The qualitative data generated by the teacher and learner participants was transcribed and then coded using inductive techniques. The emerged codes were then refined and summarized in terms of the focus of the last two research questions. The quantitative results showed that the dominant learning style preference according to the learning style inventory was the Diverger learning style which was endorsed by over 80% of the participants. The results provided no significant association regarding the relationship between learning style preferences and mathematics achievement of graduating senior secondary school learners, and neither gender nor age were significantly associated with mathematics achievement. The qualitative analysis identified many themes related to learning styles. The participants identified that asking questions enhanced learning; sharing ideas and collaboration was an essential part of learning; and listening and reflecting contributed to effective learning practices. In terms of instructional styles, the participants identified teacher questioning practices ad active listening as important strategies. The study has implications for learning and teaching mathematics in that teachers need to know more about learners’ preferences for learning, and what they perceive as effective teaching strategies. It is important for teachers to extend their repertoire of teaching strategies so as to meet their learners’ learning needs.