The Effect of the Match between the Learning and Teaching Styles of Secondary School Mathematics Teachers on Students’ Achievement

Filiz Tuba Dikkartin Övez ,Sevinç Mert Uyangör

doi:10.7176/jep/7-29-4

Abstract

The purpose of this study is to investigate to what extent mathematics teachers teaching at secondary school 6. 7. and 8th grade students teach based on students’ learning styles and to reveal how effective matching teachers’ teaching styles with learners’ learning styles in students’ achievements is. As this research aims to reveal the case as it is, survey model was used in this study. This study was conducted on 700 secondary school students and 31 teachers who were teaching those students. The study was conducted in 2014-2015 education term at 9 schools which were randomly chosen from Balikesir Province Center. The data of the study was gathered from 31 secondary school mathematics teachers and 700 secondary school with the help of learning and teaching styles inventory scale. The results of this study reveal that teachers design the learning environments depending on their own learning styles and that there has been a close relationship between teachers’ learning styles, students’ learning styles and students’ achievements in mathematics classes, that students’ achievements increase when teaching is done based on their learning styles. Keywords: l earning styles, 4MAT styles, teaching styles, achievements, mathematics education

Highlights

Since 1940s, many views have been proposed suggesting that individual differences and learning styles (LS) need to be considered in education
When we examine the stages of the analysis, academic achievement variable was found to, at the first stage, justify T3 variable by 05% (R=0.23,R2=.053), at the second stage, T3,T1 justify by 08% (R=0.28,R2=.08), at the third stage, T3,T1,T4 variables were found to justify by 11% (R=0.33,R2=.11), at the fourth stage, T3,T1,T4,DA2 variables were found to justify by 13% (R=0.37,R2=.13), at the fifth stage, T3,T1,T4,DA2,DA1 variables were found to justify by 14% (R=0.39,R2=.15), at the sixth stage, T3,T1,T4,DA2,DA1,DA3 variables were found to justify by 15% (R=0.39,R2=.16), at the seventh stage, T3,T1,T4,DA2,DA1,DA3,DA4 variables were found to justify by 16% (R=0.40, R2=.16)
In consideration of the data obtained with this study, it is found that secondary school mathematics teachers implement the instruction appropriate to Type III learner the most and for Type I learners the least

Summary

Introduction

Since 1940s, many views have been proposed suggesting that individual differences and learning styles (LS) need to be considered in education. Teachers can prepare appropriate teaching environments primarily for themselves for students (Ekici, 2003) In accordance with this aim, the concept of education based on LS begins to be used to emphasize the necessity of consideration to the students’ individual differences. Within this scope, teachers’ job definition changes, and it is pointed out that it is necessary for teachers to be guide for students so that they can think more creatively and (Peker and Yalın, 2003; Umay,1996). When we consider the results of the studies carried out in the field, it is suggested to be necessary for teachers to be aware of students’ individual differences and their LS in teaching and learning environments. The following research questions have been addressed to this study

Objectives

Results

Conclusion