Learning Styles and Their Relation to Teaching Styles

Abstract

It is widely believed that understanding students’ learning style and preferences can benefit both students and teachers. As students learn in various ways, it appears impossible to change the learning style of each student in the classroom. Instead, teachers might modify their teaching style so as to be more consistent with their students learning style. The purpose of this paper is three-fold.: first, to define and classify the concept of learning styles; second, to give an account of the significance of identifying and understanding learners’ learning styles; third, to argue that students will have better achievements, if their teachers’ styles or the way they receive instruction matches their learning style. Moreover, it is suggested that teachers should take a balanced approach to teaching styles so that they can cope with various learning styles. The study takes a theoretical approach to review relevant literature on the topic and present various view points on matching and/or mismatching leaning styles with teaching styles.