On Learning Styles, Academic Performance and Innovative Teaching Practices: Empirical Evidence from Post-Graduate Students at Department of Commerce, University of Delhi

Abstract

In order to make higher education system teaching- learning process more effective it is necessary to understand the learning styles of the students so that teaching process can be suitably adapted or modified. This paper examines the learning styles of 320 first year post graduate students at Department of Commerce, University of Delhi. We also examine if there is a significant relationship between learning styles and academic performance. The study uses the standard Learning styles questionnaire developed by Kolb (1984) and cross tabulation and Chi square test to analyse the results. We find that the top learning style is Diverging (Feel and Watch/Listen) followed by Accommodating (Feel and Do) and Assimilating (Think and Watch). The least preferred learning style is Converging (Think and Do). There is no significant difference in learning style of male and female students. However, there is a significant association between Course and Learning style. Most of the professional course students are Accommodators (Doer) as against Divergers (Watcher) and Assimilators (Thinkers) in academic course. We found that students Learning style and Academic performance are significantly related. Among top scorers we find mostly Assimilators or Divergers while among the lowest scorers the percentage of Accommodators is high. The findings of the study have important implications for students, teachers and other stakeholders in higher education system.