Abstract
This study was conducted to analyse the influence of learning styles and teaching strategies on academic performance in mathematics. Surveys were conducted to 277 randomly selected grade 9 students and five purposively sample mathematics teachers. Findings reveal that most of the student-respondents have a combination of dependent, collaborative and independent learning styles. Multiple regression analysis indicates that among the learning styles, only the independent style has a significant influence on the academic performance of grade 9 students. Four teaching strategies including cooperative learning, deductive approach, inductive approach, and integrative approach, were found to have a significant influence on academic performance. By understanding the learning styles of students, teachers will be guided in designing different strategies to help students enhance learning for their improved performance in mathematics.
Highlights
Mathematics plays a predominant role in everyday life
Based on the study of Fayombo (2015), the teaching strategies and learning styles contributed 20 percent (R2 = 0.20) to the variance in academic achievement, and this was statistically significant (F (2,168), (21.04, p < .05)). These findings revealed the importance of utilizing different teaching strategies to accommodate different learning styles and improve students’ academic performance in mathematics
According to the study of Ganyaupfu (2013), the results demonstrate that teacher-student interactive method was the most effective teaching strategy, which is one of the features of cooperative learning, followed by student-centred method while the teacher-centred approach was the least effective teaching strategy which is shown in the lecture-type strategy
Summary
Learning mathematics helps students think analytically and have better reasoning abilities. It helps them develop their lifelong learning skills to solve problems in life. Speaking, mathematics is a subject that many students either love or hate. It is hated by learners who do not find figures interesting, especially those students who are more into social sciences (Prayoga & Abraham, 2017). Because of the formula and rules involved in a mathematics lesson, students tend to develop negative attitudes and concern towards the subject (Altintas & Ilgün, 2017). Many students struggle with learning mathematics at some point. For this reason, they have to experiment with different learning styles in learning mathematics. The learning styles of the students define how they respond to stimuli in the context of learning
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