Learning Styles and Academic Achievement in Chemistry among Senior Secondary Schools

Learning Styles and Academic Achievement in Chemistry among Senior Secondary

Schools in Oruk Anam Local Government Area of Akwa Ibom State, Nigeria

Joshua, Isaac Mfon

Department of Science Education (Chemistry) Faculty of Education
University of Calabar, Calabar Nigeria
Joshuaisaac1975@gmail.com
G.S.M: 08064010058, 07087124832, 08083858941

Abstract
The study investigated students’ learning styles preferences and academic achievement
in chemistry. Survey design was adopted for the study with the population of 450 Senior
Secondary two (SS2) Chemistry students in Oruk Anam Educational Zone of Akwa Ibom
State. Simple Random Sampling Technique was used to select 310 chemistry students as
sample for the study. The data obtained were analyzed using Independent t-test and
Pearson Product Moment Correlation (PPMC) techniques. The result of the findings
revealed that there was no significant difference in the learning styles preferences
among male and female students. Large proportion of the chemistry students were visual
learners (68.7%) followed by auditory (18.1%) and kinesthetic learners (13.2%). There
was statistically significant difference in academic achievement levels among secondary
school students. Also there was weak or no correlation between academic achievement
and learning styles preferences among male and female chemistry students. The study
recommends that students need to understand their learning styles preferences and make
use of such in order to develop meaningful and life-long learning.
Keywords: Learning styles, Senior Secondary School Chemistry Students, Academic
achievement levels.

Introduction
Learning style has been defined as a set of cognitive, emotional and
psychological factors that serve as relatively stable indicators of how a learner perceives,
interact with and responds to the learning environment. Every individual has its own
natural or habitual pattern of acquiring and processing information in learning situations.
The common ways or patterns by which people learn are known as their learning styles.
(Keefe, 1987). Learning style has dual characteristic which indicates how students
learned and like to learn, as well as instructional strategy informing the cognition,
context and content of learning. Everyone has a combination of various learning styles.
Some people may find that they have a dominant style of learning with far less use of the
other styles while others find that they use different styles in different circumstances. A
core concept is that individuals differ in the ways they learn. Coffield., Moseley., Hall.,
&Ecclestone, (2004) states that the idea of individualized learning styles was initiated in
1970s and since then has influenced science education remarkably. Proponent of learning
styles recommended that teachers should identify the learning styles of their students and
adapt teaching methods to best fit learning style of each student. (Graf., Liu., &Kinshuk,

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 Learning Styles and Academic Achievement in Chemistry among Senior Secondary Schools

2010). It is important that Chemistry Students in Senior Secondary Schools identify their
learning styles. Being aware of their individual pattern of learning, they can take
responsibility for their own learning, attributes meaning to the process of learning,
develops understanding of their own forms of learning and become much more satisfied
with the environment they interact with. Chemistry teachers in Senior Secondary Schools
should diagnose their students’ learning styles. When this is done, they would be able to
regulate the teaching-learning process in a desirable direction.
Generally, students acquire and process information in different ways: by seeing
and hearing, reflecting and acting, reasoning logically and intuitively, analyzing and
visualizing. Teachers also vary in their teaching methods, some apply instructions,
lecture or demonstration while others lead students to self-discovery; some focus on
principles and others on applications; some emphasize on memory and others
understanding. When learning styles of most students mismatch with teaching methods
of the teachers, the students may become bored and inattentive in the class, do poorly on
examinations, get discouraged and lack interest about the subjects, curricular activities
and themselves. In some cases lack of proper attention to individual students’ learning
styles lead to poor attendance and drop out of students in schools. It is commonly
observed that many Chemistry teachers and students alike, in our nation’s Senior
Secondary Schools are given no or little attention to the concept of learning styles.
Learning styles preferences may influence learning and subsequently academic
achievement of Chemistry students in Senior Secondary Schools.

Theoretical/Conceptual Framework
VAK Learning Style Theory
The VAK learning style theory developed by Fleming (1995) states that each
individual learner experiences learning through different sensory channels namely: visual
(V), auditory (A) and kinesthetic (K). Individual learner may exhibit preference to any of
these learning styles. Relating the theory to this study, learning style preferences may
influence learning and academic success of students.
The present study is embedded on the VAK learning style theory because visual,
auditory and Kinesthetic (VAK) modes of learning are the commonly preferred ways of
learning in traditional Chemistry Classroom setting. Based on this theory, several
scholars have developed learning styles inventories which can be applied in science
education research and classroom setup including Barsch which categorizes learners
based on their sensory perceptions. One family of learning style models that has gained
popularity recently has been those which have emphasized sensory modalities as a means
of providing stimuli to the learner is known as VAK (Coffield, Moseley, Hall,
&Ecclestone, 2004). This model comprises of three sub-modes; Visual (V), Auditory
(A), and Kinesthetic (K). Presently, one of the most common modes of exchanging
information in today's modern society is speech, and it is attributed as auditory in the
VAK model through the reception of this information by the ear. Other group of learners
may show a preference for visual learning (V), which have not been particularly well
covered by the methods of teaching in the secondary schools (Galasinski, 2000). Lastly,
a group of learners within this model are learning via multiple sense, including touch,

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 Learning Styles and Academic Achievement in Chemistry among Senior Secondary Schools

hearing, smell & taste, described by the literature as Kinesthetic learners (K) and as such
want concrete, multisensory experiences in their learning.
According to Kolb (2001), most language and creative students are mainly
auditory. The way learners receive information based on the VAK theory, has been
divided into three categories sometimes referred to as modalities: Visual - sights,
pictures, diagrams, symbols; auditory - sound, words; Kinesthetic - taste, touch, and
smell. An extensive body of research has established that most people learn most
effectively with one of the three modalities and tend to miss or ignore information
presented in either of the other two. There are thus visual, auditory, and kinesthetic
learners, although there are some learners who tend to use a combination of both visual
and auditory senses and have been termed as tactile learners (Doyran, 2000). Visual
learners remember best what they see: pictures, diagrams, flow charts, time lines, films,
demonstrations. If something is simply said to them they will probably forget it.
Auditory learners remember much of what they hear and more of what they hear and say.
They get a lot out of discussion, and learn effectively by explaining things to others
(Doyran, 2000).Visual learners prefer to learn by reading books, seeing words, or
looking at some teaching tools. They prefer to look at the written words on the black
board than to only listen to the teacher. Therefore they like the teacher to write more than
to talk in classroom. The PowerPoint presentation is suitable to these learners because it
presents words, and pictures or charts. This type of learners will feel comfortable when
teacher use the translation-grammar teaching approach in science teaching. Auditory
learners may enjoy to have information with others by talking. They may dislike reading
books. So in formal instruction settings, they would rather listen more than see more. A
few teaching approaches may suit them, such as the oral approach, the situational
approach, the audio-lingual approach, and communicative approach. Tactile learners and
kinesthetic learners are similar (Doyran, 2000). The former prefer to learners by feeling
or touching something with their hands while the later like movement. Learners of these
two kinds will feel comfortable when teacher use the total physical response approach.
According to Sternberg (1997), learning will be more effective if it is tailored
around the learning style approaches of the learners. The instructor/teacher should
therefore establish the learning style preference of learners in order to design an effective
instruction. Doyran (2000) puts this in the context of science [physics] teaching, arguing
that the physics class should take into account the visual, auditory, and kinesthetic
learner by designing instructional methods that involve these modalities in a typical
class. Only then, can instructor believe that each learner has been reached at his/her
learning point of need. Based on the VAK theory, instructors should ensure that activities
are designed and carried out in ways that offer each learner the chance to engage in a
manner that suits them best. Since the student's needs in a typical classroom are much
diverse, the science teacher will have to employ different instructional methods which
help each of the individual learners interact with the content in a way that they
understands it well. For example, the teacher should utilize lecture and recorded
conversation method to carter for the auditory learner; flip charts and PowerPoint
presentation to meet the visual learner and writing/note taking and dramatization to meet
the kinesthetic learner. By doing this the learners will be met at their point of learning;

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 Learning Styles and Academic Achievement in Chemistry among Senior Secondary Schools

they will discover their preferred learning styles and strategies, strengths and weaknesses
in learning contexts and leverage on those opportunities for better academic achievement
and ultimately acquire life-long learning attitude.
Abidin.,Rezace., Abdullah., Singh, (2011), in a study on the relationship
between learning styles and academic achievement. A total of 317 students in an Islamic
school in Malaysia participated in the survey study. The learning styles survey (LSS)
instrument which is based on joy Reid's perceptual Learning-style preference
questionnaire was used. The statistical procedures employed in the study were one-way
ANOVA and multiple regression analysis. The analysis of the data indicated a significant
relationship between overall academic achievement and learning styles. It was also found
that the high, moderate and low achievers have a similar preference pattern of learning in
all learning styles. More so, the learning styles framework does not change with subjects,
when it actually plays an important role across all subjects. Therefore, the results suggest
avenues of future research to understand the phenomenon.
Vaishnav., and chirayu, (2013) conducted a study on the analysis of learning
styles and academic achievement among secondary school students in Maharashtra state.
A sample of 200 students of class 9th, 10th and 11th standard was randomly selected for
the study. Learning styles inventory by Victoria Chislett and Alan Chapman was used to
identify the preferred learning style of students. The correlation between academic
achievement and learning styles was determined using Pearson’s product moment co-
efficient method and also to identify the effect of learning style on academic
achievement ANOVA F test was used. Findings of the study revealed that, kinesthetic
learning style was more prevalent than visual and auditory learning styles among
secondary school students. There exist positive high correlation between kinesthetic
learning style and academic achievement (r = 0.658). The other two learning styles have
positive relationship but not strong one; r = 0.287 for auditory learning style and r =
0.129 for visual learning style. The main effects of the three variables - visual, auditory
and kinesthetic are significant on academic achievement.
A study carried out by kopsovich (2001) on the relationship between learning
style of students and their mathematics scores on the Texas assessment of academic
skills test revealed that the learning style preferences significantly impacted their
mathematics achievement scores. Gender and ethnicity were mitigating factors in the
findings. There was a significance relationship of 0.542 at the 0.05 level of significance.
The author suggests that supplying the teachers with information concerning student's
learning style preferences will benefit student achievement. Erton (2010) in a study of
the Relations between Personality Traits, Language Learning styles and success in
foreign language achievement, reported that male students tend to achieve higher in
sciences than female counterparts.
A research study that investigated the impact of learning styles on the academic
achievement of secondary school students in Iran was conducted by
(JilardiDamavandi.,Mannhyuddin., Elias., Daud., and shabani, 2011). The David Kolb
Learning style inventory was administered in eight public schools in Tehran. The mean
of the test scores in five subjects, namely English, science, mathematics, history, and
geography, was calculated for each student and used as a measure of academic

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 Learning Styles and Academic Achievement in Chemistry among Senior Secondary Schools

achievement. A total of 285 Grade 10 students were randomly selected as sample of the
study. The results of the ANOVA showed that there was a statically significant
difference in the academic achievement of the Iranian students that correspond to the
four learning styles; in particular, the mean scores for the converging and
accommodating group of students. A study carried out by Erton (2010) among five
faculties at Bilkent University First year students has contributed to the field of learning
style in education. The research was conducted among 102 freshman students between
the age of 18 and 23 who responded to the Jeffrey Barsch's Learning style inventory and
their test scores were used to calculate the statistical coefficient between the two
variables. The study showed that there was a weak positive statistical relationship
between the learning styles of the students and their achievement in foreign language
(English) with a correlation coefficient of 0.306. Another study carried out by (Gappi.
2013), explored on the student's preferred learning styles and their academic
achievements. The specific objectives of the study were to: describe the learning style
preferences of the students; to find out whether learning style preferences of the students
differed with age, gender and academic programme and to determine the relationship
between the learning style preferences and the students' academic performances. The
participants of the study consisted of all (131) freshman students who were accepted
during the first semester of the academic year 2012-2013, composing of 18 natural youth
and 13 young adults, the index of learning styles (ILS) questionnaire was utilize to carry
out the rationale of the study. Permission to use the questionnaire was granted free of
charge via internet, and the results demonstrated that generally the students were fairly
well balanced in all four dimensions presented in the ILS questionnaire. The result
further showed that there was no significant effect of age, gender and academic
programme on the learning style preferences of the students. Based on the result, there
was no significant statistical correlation between the academic achievement and the
learning style preferences of the students.
The table below summarizes the VAK (1995) learning styles dimensions, how
learners tend to learn and what the teachers need to do to ensure that learning is
maximized.
Table 1: VAK learning Style Dimensions
Dimension Learners tend to: Teachers needs to
encourage learners to:
Visual Learn through seeing; Think in pictures and Use graphics to reinforce
need to create vivid mental images to retain learning, colours code to
information; organize notes and
Enjoy looking at maps, charts, pictures, possessions.
videos, and movies; Use colour to highlight
Have visual skills which are demonstrated important points in text,
in puzzle building, reading, writing, Take notes, illustrate ideas
understanding charts and graphs, a good as a picture before writing
sense of direction, sketching, painting, them down,
creating visual metaphors and analogies Ask for written directions,
(perhaps through the visual arts), Use flow charts and

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 Learning Styles and Academic Achievement in Chemistry among Senior Secondary Schools

Manipulating images, constructing, fixing, diagrams for note taking,

designing practical objects, and interpreting Visualize spelling of words
visual images. or facts to be memorized.

Auditory Learn through listening; Read aloud;

Have highly developed auditory skills and Recite information to learn;
are generally good at speaking and Use tunes or rhymes as
presenting; mnemonics devices;
Think in words rather than pictures; Read aloud and tape text
Learn best through verbal lectures, questions or directions;
discussions, talking things through and Use verbal analogies and
listening to what others have to say; storytelling to demonstrate
Have auditory skills demonstrated in their point.
listening; speaking, writing, storytelling,
explaining, teaching, using humour,
understanding the syntax and meaning of
words, remembering information, arguing
their point of view, and analyzing language
usage
Kinesthetic Learn through moving, doing and touching; Make models or role play
Express themselves through movement; to physically experience
Have good sense of balance and eye-hand learning;
coordination; Skim through reading
Remember and process information through materials before reading it
interacting with the space around them; in details;
Find it hard to sit still for long periods and Annotate text and write
may become distracted by their need for questions while reading;
activity and exploration; Translate information into
Have skills demonstrated in physical diagrams or other visual
coordination, athletic ability, hands on study tools;
experimentation, using body language; Recite a list of items by
Crafts, acting, miming using their hands to counting on fingers;
create or build, dancing, and expressing Memorize or drill while
emotions through the body. moving e.g. when walking;
Listening to music while
studying.

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 Learning Styles and Academic Achievement in Chemistry among Senior Secondary Schools

Learner Best Out Comes

Diversity Practices
VISUAL LEARNERS

-Needs to see it to know DIVERSIFIED

it, TEACHING
-Strong sense of colour, METHODS
-May have artistic
ability, Use visual aids: -Effective
-Trouble following Flip charts, film, learning,
lectures, flash cards,
-Misinterpretation of Demonstrations -Motivated
Spoken words; and PowerPoint. learners,
AUDITORY LEARNERS
-Must hear it to know it, -High Academic
-Difficulty in following Use auditory aids: Achievement,
written Lecture,
directions, Discussions, -Life-long
-prefers listening to Tapes and learners
reading and Recordings;
writing
-Inability to read body
language Use kinesthetic
and facial expression. aids:
KINESTHETIC Taking notes,
LEARNERS Dramatize,
Use Scratch
papers,
-Prefer hands-on Experiment
learning,
-Difficulty in sitting
skill,
-Learn better when
physical
Figure 1: Conceptual Frame work.
Fleming
activity is claimed that visual learners have a preference for seeing (think in
involved.
pictures; visual aids represent ideas using methods other than words such as graphs,
charts, diagrams, symbols). Auditory learners' best learn through listening (lectures,
discussions, tapes). Kinesthetic/tactile learners prefer to learn via experience - moving,
touching, and doing (active exploration of the world; science projects; experiments). The
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 Learning Styles and Academic Achievement in Chemistry among Senior Secondary Schools

use of Fleming’s learning style models in instruction allows teachers to prepare classes
that address each of these areas, especially in science education. Students can also use
the model to identify their preferred learning style and maximize their learning by
focusing on the mode that benefits them the most. It is on this learning style that the
present study is anchored.

Why learning style?

How can science teachers improve the performance of their students if they do
not know how the students learn? How can teachers pretend any longer that they are
serious about creating a learning society if teachers have no satisfactory responses to the
question; what model of teaching do science teachers adopt and how do they use it to
improve their practice and that of the students?
There is a strong intuitive appeal that instructors should pay closer attention to
student's learning styles by diagnosing them, by encouraging learners to reflect on them
and by designing teaching and learning interventions around them. When this is done,
learners will become more motivated to learn by knowing their strength and weaknesses
as learners. In turn, instructors can respond to individual's strengths and weaknesses,
then retention and achievement rates and learning to learn skills provide a foundation for
life-long learning. If instructors accept that people are all different in similar ways and
that is possible to identify and measure these differences reasonably accurately, then the
potential benefits for teachers and learners are phenomenal. A greater knowledge of a
range of learning styles will help the instructors to be more aware of their preferred
teaching style (coffield, Moseley, Hall, and Ecclestone, 2004). This might include the
way they communicate and the kinds of methods and techniques used to explain things.
It might also include the way they plan lessons and the kinds of tasks and activities
devised for learners; recognize their student's learning style preference, particularly those
that are different from their own and also understand better the difficulties and barriers
that young people experience in their learning. Potentially, the most attractive claim is
that teachers will be able to match their teaching to their student's learning styles by
explaining and presenting things in different ways using alternative teaching aids and
techniques and tailoring activities that they provide to suit their students learning styles.
Greater awareness of their own dominant learning styles can help teachers to provide
learning activities that are more inclusive of the other styles and which reach all students.

Relevance of learning styles on learning and teaching

With the shift from an instructional to a learning paradigm there is growing
acceptance that understanding the way students learn is the key to science education
improvement. To achieve a desired learning outcome, one should provide teaching
interventions that are compatible with the student's learning styles. Thus, learning styles
is a concept that is important not only in shaping teaching practices, but also in
highlighting issues that help school administrators think more deeply about their roles in
facilitating students learning. When teaching takes place in or out of the classroom,
students are expected to learn. Teaching is intended to result in learning, secondary
school teachers can benefit from understanding and applying certain principles of

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 Learning Styles and Academic Achievement in Chemistry among Senior Secondary Schools

learning when designing and implementing their teaching initiatives. Neglecting or

misapplication of principles of learning could easily result in teaching that fails to
achieve results, it is important that teachers become familiar with the underlying
principles in learning. Previous studies have reported that student's learning performance
could be improved if proper learning style dimension is taken into consideration when
developing any learning or instructional process (Graf, Liu, and Kinshuk, 2010).
Sims, and Sims. (1995) reported that learning may not take place if the teaching
is not structured to facilitate learning even when the teaching mode is appropriate.
Learning principles that will affect the learning of students and the success of teaching
efforts are setting the stage, provide clear instructions and modeling appropriate
behaviour when emphasizing particularly skills or competencies. Teaching efforts today
are made at the classroom level with relatively large group of students. Thus, while the
teaching approaches are at the class (macro) level, learning takes place at the individual
student (micro) level, influenced by their individual learning style preferences (Sims &
Sims 1995). The challenge to teachers is the attempt to bridge this gap. Proponents of
learning style assessment contend that optimal instruction requires diagnosing
individuals learning style and tailoring instruction accordingly.
Assessment of learning style typically ask people to evaluate what sort of
information presentation they prefer (words versus pictures versus speech) and or what
kind of mental activity they find most engaging or congenial (Analysis versus listening)
although assessment instruments are extremely diverse, most common-but not the only -
hypothesis about the instructional relevance of learning style is the meshing hypothesis,
according to which instruction is best provided in a format that matches the preference of
the learner (e.g. for a visual learner emphasizing visual presentation of information). In
teaching, whether teachers are aware of it or not, an assumption underlying many of the
current teaching practices is that students are 'empty vessel 'and teacher's role is to fill
them with knowledge and academic content. But increasingly, research on student
learning suggests the metaphor of 'dialogue' is more appropriate in that it emphasis the
interactive, cooperative, rational aspects of teaching and learning. (Steve, 2000).
Once faculty shifts from the empty 'vessel' model to a dialogue and communal
one; old habit in teaching begins to shift. A lecture class no longer entails simply a
scripted delivery of information (no matter how well done), but it may also include a
variety of 'active learning' techniques that truly engage students in the collective
dialogue. This is built on the fact that student's bodies are increasingly diverse, not only
in terms of ethnicity and gender but also in terms of age, nationality and cultural
background. This diversity can affect classroom settings in many ways, including the
diversity of learning styles. For example, older students who can draw from their life
experience are more likely to be independent, 'self-directed' learners (Knowles, 1980).
Despite the apparent tendencies, it is equally important not to pigeonhole students on the
basis of expected learning styles since a vast range of individual differences is evident
with any demographic group (Knowles 1980). The contention is that, by making an
effort to consider students learning styles teachers may be able to reap equal satisfaction
from reinvigorating their teaching practices hence high academic achievement
(Erdogan.,Bayran., &Deniz, 2000). Realistically, no teacher can expect to develop

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 Learning Styles and Academic Achievement in Chemistry among Senior Secondary Schools

different ways of teaching for each individual student in their class, but they can provide
variety of learning experiences such that at one point or another each learning style is
addressed.
A specific attention has been given to chemistry education perhaps due to its
wide application in medicine, pharmacy and in the Nigerian 6-3-3-4 system of education
curriculum where chemistry subject is optionally taught in most senior secondary
schools. Chemistry being one of the three core sciences is an important aspect of life in
all, especially with the rise in globalization of science education where the human race
needs a common and identifiable scientific knowledge for technological advancement
(Ray. 2010). Most of the courses in higher education also require good result in
chemistry subject since the subject lays a sound scientific foundation for advancement in
science education. For these reasons, achievement in Senior Secondary School
Chemistry has been and continues to be researched on and understood in the light of the
factors affecting achievement. A number of learning -related concepts, such as
perception of academic control and achievement motivation which have been a focus of
attention when attempting to identify factors affecting learning related performance
(Cano-Gracia, and Hughes, 2000).

Relevance of Learning Style on Academic Achievement

Academic achievement has, for the past centuries, been the nucleus of interest in
Science education research. Exploring the issue of achievement has extended beyond
simple issues of intelligence and prior academic achievement into how learners interact
with the learning material. Steve (2000) claims that satisfactory learning styles
culminates and influences academic achievement. Students need to understand their
learning styles preferences and make use of such in order to improve their academic
success (Simpson & Wiener 1989). Several factors have been identified in explaining
academic achievement: demographic status (Ray, 2010), intelligence (Deary., Strand.,
Smith, & Fernandez, 2007); behavioral characteristic (Lane., Barton-Arwoo., &Nelsonz,
2008); and psychological factors such as attributes (Erdogan., Bayram, &Deniz, 2008)
Self-esteem (Reasoner, 2005) self-efficacy (Olatunde, 2009) and Self-concept (Holliday,
2009).
The constructs academic achievement is defined as successful completion,
through effort of the acquisition of academic content and skills. Olatunde, (2009) States
that, accomplishment '' is sometime used in place of ''achievement ''. According to the
writer educational achievement is measured by standardized achievement test developed
for school science subjects. This implies that academic achievement is measured in
relation to what is attained at the end of a course, since it is the accomplishment of long
term objective of education. What is important is that the test should be a standardized
test to meet national or state norm. For a test to be standardized, it must be valid for over
a period of time. Academic achievement discourse prefer that all students in a school
take the same course work and engage in that course work in the same way - through
traditional methods such as note-taking, raising hands for questions, and reading the
same textbooks. The bottom line in academic achievement discourse is based on grades
and test scores. Academic achievement has always been influenced by the learners

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 Learning Styles and Academic Achievement in Chemistry among Senior Secondary Schools

previous education performance, parents income and social status, student's social and
emotional status or wellbeing, the school environment, learner's attitude (Erdogan.,
Bayram., and Deniz, 2008), among other factors. The present research study is aimed at
determining the preferred learning styles as they relates with academic achievement of
students without really understanding the causal-effect relationship. An experimental
research can be conducted in future to examine the causal-effect relationship between the
two variables so as to confidently and empirically state whether or not learning styles
determines achievement in science education.

Statement of the problem

The worrisome observation about Senior Secondary School Chemistry students’
preferred learning styles and the decline of the student’s academic achievement in the
Akwa Ibom Senior Secondary Two Promotion Examinations (AKSS2PE) result is a
problem that bothers parents, teachers, policy makers and government. Existing evidence
shows that AKSS2PE results for chemistry students in public secondary schools are
deteriorating yearly across all schools in the state (MOE, 2018). Most chemistry students
do not seem to have learned how to learn or discover their preferred learning styles for
different learning materials and content in the subject. There are observed to be
inattentive in class, get discouraged about the subject and themselves. In some worse
cases, they do poorly on tests, examinations and opt out of the subject. Review of
literature has shown that very limited numbers of works have been reported in the
literature on the role of preferred learning styles by students as they relate with students
academic achievement.
Therefore, this study seeks to investigate students learning styles preferences and
its relationship with academic achievement in chemistry.

Research questions:
The following research questions were formulated to guide the study:
1. What is the difference in learning styles preferences among male and female
secondary school chemistry students in OrukAnam Educational Zone, Akwa
Ibom State?
2. What is the difference between high and low academic achievers among
secondary school chemistry students in OrukAnam Educational Zone, Akwa
Ibom State?
3. What is the relationship between preferred learning styles and academic
achievement among male and female chemistry students in OrukAnam
Educational Zone, Akwa Ibom State?

Research Hypotheses:
The following hypotheses were tested statistically in this study:
1. There is no significant difference in learning styles preferences among male and
female secondary school chemistry students in OrukAnam Educational Zone,
Akwa Ibom State.

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 Learning Styles and Academic Achievement in Chemistry among Senior Secondary Schools

2. There is no significant difference between high and low academic achievers

among secondary school chemistry students in OrukAnam Educational Zone,
Akwa Ibom State.
3. There is no significant relationship between learning styles preferences and
academic achievement among male and female chemistry students in OrukAnam
Educational Zone, Akwa Ibom State.

Research Methodology
Research Design:
This study adopted a descriptive survey design. In descriptive survey design,
data collection is carried out in a structured process without manipulation and is aimed to
describe the characteristics of selected phenomenon.

Study Population:
In the present study, all the 450 senior secondary two (SS2) chemistry students
in 2018/ 2019 school year in OrukAnam education zone formed the target population.

Sample and Sampling Techniques:

A multistage sampling technique was adopted. Samples of 10 out of 15 public
senior secondary schools in OrukAnam education zone were selected by lottery.
Thereafter, in each of the 10 selected public schools, 32 senior secondary two (SS2)
chemistry students who have written Akwa Ibom Senior secondary Two Promotion
Examinations (AKSS2PE) were selected through simple random sampling making a total
sample of 320 students that participated in the study.

Instrument for Data Collection:

A set of questionnaire was used for data collection. The questionnaire comprised
of demographic data, end of term examination score sheet for retrieval of achievement
scores of the participants and a standardized VAK questionnaire (version 7.2) design by
Neil Fleming in 1995 which explored different individual styles of learning. The VAK
questionnaire has 14 questions or statement that assessed into Visual (V), Auditory (A),
and Kinesthetic (K). Based on the VAK questionnaire scoring chart, the highest scores
would be the dominant learning style of an individual. The scoring chart comprised all
the answers for all the 14 questions according to each category, Visual (V), Auditory (A)
and Kinesthetic (K).

Data Collection Procedure:

After obtaining approval from each of the 10 selected schools, the investigator
personally administered a set of questionnaire to the individual participants and requests
the students to respond to every components of the questionnaire which takes 10-20
minutes in the classroom. Thereafter, the questionnaire were retrieved from the students
and the promotion examination scores of the participated students were retrieved from
the subject or class teachers' records using scores' sheet.

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 Learning Styles and Academic Achievement in Chemistry among Senior Secondary Schools

Data Processing and Analysis:

For data processing, all the data were gathered and manually counted the total
score of each questionnaire followed by each component. Those that were not fully
completed by the students and some who inappropriately answered the questionnaire by
continuous circling one single option constantly were excluded from the study. More so,
the student who have no promotion examination scores in chemistry which was the
guideline used for portraying the academic achievement, were also excluded from the
study. A calculated mean score of 60 is used in categorizing the academic achievement
into high and low levels. A student who scores 60% and above was deemed to have
highly achieve, while the student who has 59% and below was deemed to have lowly
achieve. The exclusion of some questionnaires resulted in the 310 samples used for the
analysis. The data from the 310 samples were coded, entered and analyzed using the
statistical package for social science (SPSS) version 20.0.

Results
Table 2.0: Descriptive statistics of the basic variables (N = 310)
Variables Frequency %
Students learning Style Preferences
Visual (V) 213 68.7
Auditory (A) 56 18.1
Kinesthetic (K) 41 13.2
Total 310 100.0
Gender
Male 156 50.3
Female 154 49.7
Total 310 100.0
Academic achievement levels
High 165 53.2
Low 145 46.8
Total 310 100.0

Result from table 2 shows different learning style preferences, gender and level
of academic achievement. It depicts that chemistry students preferred visual (68.7%)
followed by auditory (18.1%) and kinesthetic (13.2%). For gender 50.3% (156) were
male students while 49.7% (154) were female students. In terms of academic
achievement levels, 53.2% (165) of the student falls under high achieving groups while
46.8% (145) were low achievers.

Hypothesis one:
1. There is no significant difference in learning styles preferences among male and
female secondary school chemistry students in Oruk Anam Educational Zone,
Akwa Ibom State.

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 Learning Styles and Academic Achievement in Chemistry among Senior Secondary Schools

Table 3.
Independent t-test analysis showing results of the difference in learning styles
preferences among secondary school chemistry students by gender
Variables
Groups N X SD DF t-val Crit-val
Male 156 73.6538 11.07666
Student Learning
308 0.321 1.966
Styles Female 154 73.2468 11.25365

The result as on the table 3 above indicated that the calculated t-value 0.321 was less
than the critical t-value 1.966 at 0.05 level of significance and 308 degree of freedom.
With that the null hypothesis was accepted and the alternative hypothesis was rejected.

Hypothesis two:There is no significant difference between high and low academic

achievements among secondary school chemistry students in OrukAnam Educational
Zone, Akwa Ibom State.

Table 4:
Independent t-test analysis showing results of the difference in academic achievement
levels among secondary school chemistry students
Variables
Groups N X SD DF t-val Crit-val
Academic High 165 60.7455 0.67764
308 3.069 1.966
achievement Low 145 58.6966 0.46134

From the results in table 4 above, the calculated t-value 3.069 was higher than the critical
t-value 1.966 at 0.05 level of significance and 308 degree of freedom. With that, the null
hypothesis was rejected and the alternative hypothesis was accepted.

Hypothesis three: There is no significant relationship between learning styles

preferences and academic achievement among male and female chemistry students in
OrukAnam Educational Zone, Akwa Ibom State.

Table 5: Pearson product moment Correlation analysis showing the relationship

between learning styles preferences and academic achievement by gender.
Correlation
Students learning Gender
style
Overall Male Female
Visual (V) Pearson correlation 0.031 -0.010 0.157
sig (2-tailed) 0.646 0.916 0.100
N 213 105 108
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 Learning Styles and Academic Achievement in Chemistry among Senior Secondary Schools

Auditory (A) Pearson correlation 0.140 -0.013 0.305

Sig (2-tailed) 0.331 0.953 0.130
N 56 30 26
Kinesthetic (K) Pearson correlation -0.147 0.340 -0.058
Sig (2-tailed) 0.346 0.155 0.789
N 41 21 20

Result from table 5 shows a very weak or no relationship among all the various
learning styles dimensions. The visual learners had overall correlation coefficient
r=0.031, auditory learners r = 0.140 and the kinesthetic learners r = -0.147. Among the
visual learners, male had r = -0.010, female r = 0.157 while auditory learners, male r = -
0.013, female r = 0.305 and for the kinesthetic learners, male r = 0.340 whereas female r
= - 0.058.

Discussion of Findings
The findings from table 2 revealed that the visual learners were the majority
(68.7%) compared to those who preferred auditory (18.1%) and or kinesthetic (13.2%).
Specifically, the kinesthetic learners were the least preferred learning style. This is
consistent with the findings of Laxman et al (2013) who found out that kinesthetic
learning style was the least among their study population.
The finding of this study were found contrary to what Vaishnav and Chirayu
(2013) found in their study on learning style and academic achievement where they
found out that the kinesthetic learners were the majority. The difference may be
explained by the cultural contexts considering that these studies were conducted in
different countries. According to Gappi (2013), the cultural environment of the students
to a large extent dictates the way the students receive and process information in a
learning environment. For gender 50.3% (156) were male students while 49.7% (154)
were female students.
Result from table 3 revealed that there is no significance difference in students
learning styles preferences among male and female students. The result of this findings is
supported by Erton (2010) who found that male student tend to perform in sciences
higher than the female students.
Result from table 4 revealed that there was statistically significant difference
between high and low academic achievement groups among secondary school chemistry
students. The result of these findings is in consonance with the findings of Abidin et al
(2011) who found in their study on learning styles preferences and academic
achievement that the proportion of student who achieved high in academics were greater
than those who achieved low.
Findings from table 5 revealed that there is very weak or no correlation between
the overall academic achievement and the various learning style dimensions. The result
of this study is in consonance with the findings of Gappi, (2013) in a study on the
students’ preferred learning styles and their academic performance where it was found

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 Learning Styles and Academic Achievement in Chemistry among Senior Secondary Schools

that there was no significant statistical correlation between the overall academic
achievement and the learning style preferences among secondary school students.
In term of gender, male students had a very weak-negative (r = -0.010) or no
relationship with visual learning style while the female student had a weak positive (r =
0.157). Male students also had very weak negative (r = -0.013) or no relationship with
the auditory style of learning whereas females (r = 0.305) was moderate positive.
Further, male students shows low positive (r = 0.340) correlation with kinesthetic style
of learning compared to the female students with very weak negative (r = -0.058) or no
relationship with kinesthetic style of learning.

Conclusion
Based on the findings of this study, the following conclusions were reached:
1. Large proportion of the senior secondary two (SS2) chemistry students were
visual learners (68.7%) followed by auditory learners (18.1%) and the least was
kinesthetic learners (13.2%).
2. There was no statistically significant difference in learning style preferences
among male and female chemistry students in OrukAnam education zone Akwa
Ibom State.
3. There was a statistically significant difference between high and low academic
achievements among secondary school chemistry students in OrukAnam
education zone Akwa Ibom State.
4. There was weak or no relationship between learning styles preferences and the
overall academic achievement among male and female chemistry students in
OrukAnam education zone Akwa Ibom State.

It is evident from the study that the students only visualized spelling of words or
facts to be memorized but have not had enough verbal analogies and storytelling to
demonstrate their point nor make models or role play to physically experience learning.
The students are expected to rise to these challenges by equipping themselves with
discussions, tapes and recording, notes taking, drama, use of scratch papers, experiment
and hand-on activity learning techniques to acquire multimodal learning style which
enhance meaningful and life-long learning for nation building.

Recommendation
The present study yield some essential insights into learning styles preferences among
senior secondary chemistry students and the following recommendations are made:
(a) Teachers/instructors need to take into account their students diverse learning
styles, design instructional strategies that take care of those diversities and
remain sensitive of such during the instruction process.
(b) Students need to understand their learning styles preferences and make use of
such to develop meaningful and life-long learning.
(c) School administrators need to provide various learning materials which can
bring diversity in the classroom by employing visual, auditory and kinesthetic

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 Learning Styles and Academic Achievement in Chemistry among Senior Secondary Schools

materials such as use of technology and students’ project writing and

presentation among other methods.

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