al Article Relationship of learning styles and academic performance of secondary school students Nargis Munir, Nasir Ahmad, Sajjad Hussain, Usman Ghani Department of Psychiatry and Behavioral Sciences Rawal Institute of Health Sciences, Islamabad and Center for Education and Staff Training, University of Swat, Pakistan Objectives: To identify the leaming styles of secondary school students and to find out the relationship of these leaming styles with their academic achievement, Methodology: The population of the study comprised of all tenth grade male and female students of public sector schools of Rawalpindi and Islamabad, Pakistan. A total of 745 students were randomly selected fram 12 schools by applying simple random sampling technique. Results: The major findings of the study were that male students had higher level of preference in visual and auditory learning styles as compared to female students at the secondary level. No significant relationship was found between learning styles and academic achievements of students. Conclusion: Female students had higher level of preference in visual and auditory learning styles level, while male students only follow kinesthetic leaming style and no relationship was found between students learning styles and academic achievement. (Rawal Med J 201;43:421-424) Key words: Leaming styles, auditory learning style, visual learning style, tactile leaming style, academic achievement INTRODUCTION Student leams in different way that best suit his or her learning needs and they use different styles for leaning which enables them to be successful at their academic career. Learning style means individual inclinations toward specific learning approaches.’ Kolb defined learning style is "the way we prefer to absorb and incorporate new information.” Students have different styles of learning and those ways are neither good nor bad.” Teachers identify different learning styles of their students and adjust his or her teaching methods according to each student’sneeds. Acommon concept is that individuals differin how they leam.’ Oruwari is of the view that students eam in different ways, they leam by seeing and hearing, reasoning logicaily, memorizing and visualizing, drawing analogies and building models.’ Expert identified three types of learning styles: visual, auditory, and tactile. Most students eam best through the combination of these three types of leaming styles. These differences in learning styles tell us how students gain knowledge of things.’ Stemberg believes that leaming styles are somehow socialized and this 421 can be modified.’ Irvine and York’ are of the view that student's academic achievement can be increased by accommodating their style of learning. Adapting academic materials according to these learning styles will facilitate students learning especially for "low and moderate achieving students."" According to Fayombo students can develop different strategies for effective learning if they are aware of their strengths and weaknesses.” Since teachers and students in Pakistan are less aware of these research findings and very few studies has been carried out on learning styles. The objectives of the study were to identify the leaming styles of secondary school studenis, and to find out the relationship of these leaming styles with academic achievement of students, METHODOLOGY In this descriptive study data a survey was conducted. The population of the study consisted of all tenth grade male and female students of public sector schools of Rawalpindi and Islamabad, Pakistan, Sampling was carried out in two stages. In the first stage twelve schools were randomly Rawal Medical Journal: Vol. 43. No. 3, July-Sept. 2018Relationship of learning styles and academic performance of secondary school students selected. Six secondary schools were selected from Islamabad from which three were boy's secondary schools and three were girl's secondary schools. Six schools were selected from Rawalpindi among which three were boy's secondary schools and three were girl's secondary schools. In the second stage of sampling, 745 students were randomly selected from 12 secondary schools by applying simple random sampling technique, Students were included in the study with their consent. Learning Style Inventory (LSI) by Canfield” was used for analyzing the learning styles of the students, This is a 24 items inventory used to assess the visual lamers, auditory learners and kinesthetic learners. The inventory was not timed. For the better understanding, psychologist explained all the items to the students herself. Academic achievement of the students was measured by the student's pervious grade results that were their scores in ninth examination, Pilot testing of the study was carried out to test the reliability of the instrument locally. LSI was administered to 139 students, The Cronbach's alpha coefficient for LSI was 0.94, which demonstrates high reliability of the instrument and is higher than desired 0.60." LSI was administered to 745 students, The scale was administered during the class hours. Data were analyzed using SPSS version 20. RESULTS There was no significant differences in tactile learning style of the respondents where both the mean scores (14,45 and 14.31) of male and female students are nearly the same. Male students had higher mean scores for visual and auditory learning style as compared to female students (Table 1). Table 1. Cumulative description oflearning styles. Learning Style | Gender | Mean | STD Deviation Male [14.43 12929 Visual Style [Female | 13.77 12160 Male [14.63 12457 Auditory Style [Female | 13.57 11569 Male [14.45 15061 Tactile Style [Female | 14.31 12048, 422 ‘Table?2. test description oflearning style. Variables Male [Female | 1 | P M | sd |M | sa Visual Style — |14.43].12929]13.77].12160] 3.697] 000 “Auditory Style [14.63).12457]13.57].11569] 6.287.000 Tactile Style _[14.45).15068|14.31]. 12048] 719 [472 e001 di=F ‘Table 3. Correlation scores of learning styles and academic achievement. Variable ‘Academic Achievement ‘Visual learning Style =042, ‘Auditory learning Style =030 Tactile learning Style =.028 # Correlation is significant at the 0.01 level Mean score of male students on visual learning style were 14.43 and .12929, and that of of female students were 13.77 and 12160 (p=0,000) (Table 2). Mean score of males students of tactile learning style were 14.45 and .15068, and those of of female students were 14.31 and .12048 (p-0.472). Table 3 shows that no significant relationship was found between leaming styles and academic achievements of students. DISCUSSION Students follow different leaming styles which is the reflection of this statement that all students learn ina unique way. Gender-wise difference have been measured as shown in the study results that male students are better than female students in the two learning styles; that is visual and auditory learning, styles. These findings are similar to reported by Heffler? and Wehrwein et al," who found gender wise differences in the learning styles of male and female students. However, this study results are in contrast to those of Jilardi Damavandi et al,"* whose studies did not find any gender-wise difference. Our results are in contrast to findings of Almigbal” who found that female students preferred visual and aural learning, styles while male students used kinesthetic learning style. Teachers can tackle these differences and diversity of learning styles and they can develop suitable learning approaches to teach them in a better way. Academic achievement and students learning styles Rawal Medical Journal: Vol. 43. No. 3, July-Sept. 2018Relationship of learning styles and academic performance of secondary school students relationship have been investigated in this study and no significant relationship have been found which oon one side accept the mull hypothesis of the study and on the other side support the findings of Pello‘on et al” and Almigbal” who found that the learning styles of students did not affect their academic performance, Our findings are similar to Njoku and Abdulhamid,” who found that learning styles is significantly related to academic performance of the students in. However, Abidin et al did not find any such relationship. According to JilardiDamavandi et al learning styles of students affects their academic performance. High level r value was also measured by this study which is totally against the results of the currents study. The limitations of the study were 1. One learning style inventory was used and only students’ obtained marks of class 9° were used which make the results limited, as it has attached the validity threats to the results. 2. Background information of students’ was not consulted during measurement their leaning styles, which may have significant effects on their Icarning styles. Furthermore, teachers’ teaching styles were also not explored, which is an important indicator of students’ learning styles. 3. Only 10 grade students of Rawalpindi and Islamabad were included in the sample group therefore, the results cannot be generalized to the students of other grades andareas. The implications of the study were; 1. Teachers may take into consideration the leaming style of students while teaching and they have to adopt an eclectic approach in their teaching. 2. This study identified the learning styles of students, which sensitize the need of strengthening the weak learning styles as these are the aspect of their intelligence, which can be enhanced, that may further accelerate their academic achievement. The researchers recommend for future researchers to investigate the same research topic at primary, or at degree level in another area. Future it was also recommended that in-depth cases studies on students learning style and students and their academic performances may be carried out. CONCLUSION Female students had higher level of preference in 423 visual and auditory learning styles level, while male students only foliow kinesthetic learning style at secondary level. It was also concluded that there tionship between students learning styles and academic achievement. ‘The identification of students learning style is important for teacher instructional preparation and delivery. Gender-wise differences in learning styles are also important for curriculum developers and teachers. “Author contributions Conception and design: Nargis Muni, Nasir Ahmad Collection and assembly of data: Nargis Muni, Usman Gran ‘Analysis and interprotaton of te dala Sajas Hussain, Nasi ‘Ahad Drafting ofthe arle: Nasie Ahmad, Nargis Munir. Creal ravsion ofthe ate for imporant intellectual content: Nasi Ahmad, Nargis Mune Ise: Nasr Ahmad, Salad Hussain 3nd guarantor one ace: Narle Mune ‘or email: Nasr Ahmad nasi cupduswa Conflict of interest: None declares Ree. Date: Mar 30,2017 Revision Rec. Date: Dec 22,20°7 Accept Date: Apr 10,20°8 REFERENCES 1.” Robotham D. The application of learning style theory in higher education teaching. Lecture presented at Wolverhampton Business School, University of Wolverhampton, United Kingdom. 1999, 2. Kolb DA, Boyatzis RE, Mainemelis C. Experiential learning theory: Previous research and new directions, Perspectives Thinking Leaming Cognitive Styles 2001;1:227-49. 3. Coffield P, Moseley D, Hall E, Heclestone K, Should we bee using learning styles? What research has to say to practice, voced.edu.au. 2004 4, Oruwari, JN. Effects of scaffolding and direct instruction fon students’ achievement and effective response to English language grammar. Unpublished Ph D Dissertation, Imo State University. 2014, 5. Marcy V. Adult Learning Styles: How the VARK® earning style inventory can be used to improve student eaming. Perspectives Physician Assistant Educ 2001;12:117-20, 6. Stemberg RJ, Grigorenko EL. Are cognitive styles tillin style? Am Psychologist 1997 ;52(7):700-12. 7. lnvine JJ, York DE, Leaming Styles and Culturally Diverse Students: A Literature Review. 1995, 8. Zin NA. Mathematics tutor: matching instruction to students leaming styles. InComputers in Education, 2002. Proceedings. International Conference on 2002 Dec’ (pp. 1508-1509). IEEE, 9. Fayombo G Learning styles, teaching strategies and academic achievement among some psychology Rawal Medical Journal: Vol. 43. No. 3, July-Sept. 2018