Role of Gender in shaping learning style preferences and academic outcomes of secondary students- a study from Andhra Pradesh, India

Abstract

Everyone is a continuous learner. The way that we learn differ from person to person which is known as learning style (LS) of a person. Perceptual modalities of learning style points out that learning happens through senses. Accordingly there are six types of learning styles. They are visual, auditory, tactile, kinaesthetic, individual and group learning styles. The researcher studies the major, minor and negligible learning styles of secondary students and influence of gender of the learner on learning styles. The researcher also focus upon the relationship between learning styles and academic achievement of the learner. The researcher followed descriptive survey method for the study and a sample of 2901 secondary school students were considered for the study. The findings of the study point out that Visual and Group learning styles as Major learning style preferences and Auditory, Kinesthetic, Tactile and Individual learning styles as Minor learning style preference. Moreover, gender of the student influences learning style preferences of the students whereas it does not influence the academic achievement of the student. Researcher also establish a positive correlation between learning styles and academic achievement of the students.