Abstract
Purpose: The study determined the achievement of students in physics when exposed to Felder-Silverman’s learning styles, amongst others. Methodology: The separate-sample pre-test, post-test quasi-experimental research design was adopted. The population was 419 senior secondary two (SSII) students offering physics in 31 schools in Bassa Local Government Area, Nigeria. A sample of 88 students obtained from four intact classes were used. The instruments used were the Index of Learning Style Questionnaire (ILSQ) and Physics Achievement Test (PAT). Construct validity and content validity were respectively performed on the ILSQ and PAT. The test-retest method was used to obtain the reliability coefficient of ILSQ as 0.86. Kuder-Richardson formula 20 was used to obtain the coefficient of PAT as 0.81. ILSQ was administered, before PAT, as pre-test so as to place students into the learning styles. After teaching for four weeks, using the lecture method, PAT was administered as post-test. The mean and ANCOVA were respectively used to answer the research questions and hypotheses. Results: Visual/verbal and sensing/intuitive learners achieved higher than the active/reflective and sequential/global learners, amongst others. Findings: A major finding was that sensing/intuitive and visual/verbal learning styles had significant effect on students’ achievement but active/reflective and sequential/global learning styles had insignificant effect. Recommendations/Classroom Implications: Students should be encouraged to put their learning styles into use. When students are exposed to the different dimensions of learning styles, their achievement in Physics may be improved.
Highlights
Education is the key that unlocks illiteracy which must be the priority of any nation that desires to build a great and dynamic economy
It was in that line of thought that Nigerian Educational Research and Development Council (2008) earlier specified the acquisition of basic literacy in Physics by secondary school students, for functional living in the society
One of the ways to prepare the students for functional living in the society is to explore the appropriate learning styles that will help promote their literacy in Physics
Summary
Education is the key that unlocks illiteracy which must be the priority of any nation that desires to build a great and dynamic economy. Dahlan, Noor and Hashim (2010), Kelly (2013), Naik (2013) and Platsidou and Metallidou (2009) further explained active/reflective and sequential/global learning: Active/reflective learners are processing learners This dimension of Felder-Silverman’s learning style refers to students’ preferred degree of involvement in solving problems. WAEC (2019) in its report for the years 2015 to 2018 observed weaknesses of students in Physics to include limited knowledge about application of velocity-time graph, lack of proper understanding of the mathematical relationship between acceleration and deceleration, inability to differentiate between the general equation of uniformly accelerated motion and that for motion under gravity, inability to determine components of the velocity of a projectile at its maximum height, failure to state reason why horizontal component of the velocity of a projectile remains the same at every point of its flight, inability to provide correct definition of concepts such as wave front, inability to distinguish between loudness and intensity of sound, inability to correctly define terms in physics and correctly handle calculations involving numbers expressed in standard form These weaknesses could have resulted from poor learning styles used by students when learning Physics. There are no significant interaction effects of FelderSilverman’s learning styles and school type on SSII students’ achievement in Physics
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