Assessment Between Learning Styles and Overall Academic Achievement

Learning Styles

Different researchers have described learning styles largely as an indication for individual differences. These dissimilarities might become a manifestation of themselves in life styles and also in personality types. In particular, learning styles can be perceived as the preferred or characteristic ways of an individual in dispensing and converting knowledge. They can also be deemed to be the reasoning, emotional, and psychosomatic individualities that serve as comparatively unchanging pointers of how learners distinguish, interrelate with, and react to the learning environment. Learning styles have an influence on the academic achievement and performance of individuals (Abidin et al., 2011). This research paper encompasses a synthesis of different literature reviews that cover learning styles and academic performance.

There are several different conceptions and measures that seek to define learning styles. Learning styles can be distinguished into three methods, which include pragmatic (surface), intrinsic (deep), and competitive (achieving) (Furnham, 2012). Every approach to learning is projected by multiple personality characteristics, and that academic attainment and performance is predicted by approaches to learning. The correlation between directness and achievement is facilitated by a deep style of learning. The study indicates that learning styles facilitate the correlation between personality variables and academic achievement (Furnham, 2012). In general, according to Furnham (2012), majority of the researches indicate and acknowledge that learning styles are just one of the prospective variables that project academic achievement. There is a query on their incremental rationality over other measures.

According to Boyle et al. (2003), the Inventory of Learning Styles invented by Vermunt in 1994 encompasses four different learning styles, which are an undirected style, a reproduction-directed style, meaning-directed style and an application-directed style. The research study undertaken by Boyle et al. (2003) sought to examine whether this model could be generalized and whether different styles of learning were linked with different academic results in 237 British students. Outcomes of the research study indicated that despite the fact that the ILS did ascertain the four different learning styles invented by Vermunt, different learning settings impact the exact features of every learning style (Boyle et al., 2003). For instance, undirected style of learning had a minimal negative impact with respect to academic performance, whereas the meaning-directed learning style had a minimal positive correlation with academic performance.

According to Abidin et al. (2011), learning styles make a significant element in the learning setting. The research makes use of the Learning Styles Survey (LSS) and examines correlation between learning styles and general academic achievement. In particular, the study employed the LSS through 317 student participants. Outcomes of the research were indicative of a substantial correlation between general academic achievement and learning styles. In addition, it was perceived that the high, moderate and low achievers have a comparable predilection pattern of learning in all learning styles. Furthermore, Abidin et al. (2011) imperatively point out that the learning styles context does not transform or vary with subjects, where it, in point of fact, plays a significant part across all the subjects.