Tailoring Instruction according to Students' Learning Styles

• Author: Tulbure, C.
• Position: Postdoctoral researcher, Faculty of Psychology and Educational Sciences, University of Bucharest
• Pages: 187-192

Bulletin of the Transilvania University of Braşov • Vol. 5 (54) No. 1 - 2012

Series VII: Social Sciences • Law

TAILORING INSTRUCTION ACCORDING

TO STUDENTS’ LEARNING STYLES

Cristina TULBURE1

Abstract: The present study re presents a continuation of a previous

research in which we investigated the categories of teaching strategies t hat

lead to the best academic achievement for students with specific learning

styles. Based on the results obtained, we implemented an experimental

investigation in order to determine the effects of le arning-style-based

instruction on the students’ academic ac hievement. A sample of 66

participants was divided into an experimental group (N=34) and a control

group (N=32). After the one-semester intervention, significant differences in

academic achievement occurred at the level of the within subject design.

Key words: learning-styles-based instruction; teaching strategies;

academic achievement.

1 Postdoctoral researcher, Faculty of Psychology and Educational Sciences, University of Bucharest.

1. Introduction

During the last three decades, there has

appeared a growing interest in researching

the effects of matching or mismatching the

instructional strategies with the students’

learning styles as concerns the academic

achievement [4], [7-9], [12], [13], [22],

and [24]. In this respect, Dunn and

colleagues [ 8] have declared: ‘We can no

longer afford to assume that all students

will learn through whichever strategy the

teacher prefer to use’. Therefore, the

learning-styles-based instruction is

complex and multifaceted, and raises at

least two essential issues:

(a) To what extent tailoring instruction

according to students’ learning styles has a

positive effect on the academic

achievement?

(b) How can we de sign and implement the

learning-styles-based instruction, in order

to enhance students’ academic

achievement? More precisely, what kind of

teaching strategies are adequate to each

learning styles category?

Regarding t he fir st question, we may

divide the results of the research studies

into three categories:

• studies showing that the learning-styles-

based instruction has led to superior

academic achievement in comparison with

the whole-class instruction [4], [6], [9-11];

• researches concluding that tailoring

instruction according to students’ learning

preferences has had no effect upon the

academic achievement [2], [18], [19];

• studies indicating that the mismatch

between the instructional strategies and the

learning styles would have some positive

effects upon the learning process and,

implicitly, upon the academic achievement

[5], [7], [16], [27]. As we may see, the

issue of learning-styles-based instruction is

controversial and, as a consequence, i t

needs more empirical investigation.