A Match or Mismatch Between Learning Styles of the Learners and Teaching Styles of the Teachers

Abstract

It is important to study learning styles because recent studies have shown that a match between teaching and learning styles helps to motivate studentsprocess of learning. That is why teachers should identify their own teaching styles as well as their learning styles to obtain better results in the classroom. The aim is to have a balanced teaching style and to adapt activities to meet studentsstyle and to involve teachers in this type of research to assure the results found in this research study. Over 100 students complete a questionnaire to determine if their learning styles are auditory, visual, or kinesthetic. Discovering these learning styles will allow the students to determine their own personal strengths and weaknesses and learn from them. Teachers can incorporate learning styles into their classroom by identifying the learning styles of each of their students, matching teaching styles to learning styles for difficult tasks, strengthening weaker learning styles. The purpose of this study is to explain learning styles, teaching styles match or mismatch between learning and teaching styles, visual, auditory, and kinesthetic learning styles among Iranian learners, and pedagogical implications for the EFL/ESL classroom. A review of the literature along with analysis of the data will determine how learning styles match the teaching styles.