The relationship between learning styles and achievement of solving algebraic problems among lower secondary school students

Abstract

A learning style is a student’s consistent way of acquiring knowledge while problem-solving is an essential skill for developing mathematical knowledge and reasoning. Studies reported that Malaysia’s secondary school students’ performance in solving algebraic problems was poor. Thus, this study aims to investigate the relationship between learning styles and achievement of solving algebraic problems among the lower secondary school students. For the purpose of this research, 373 lower secondary school students in the age range of 14 to 15, living in the Johor Bahru district, were randomly selected. A 12-item Kolb’s learning style inventory was used to identify the students’ learning styles, and a 6-item algebraic problem-solving test was used to measure the students’ achievement of solving algebraic problem. The results show that the majority of the lower secondary school students preferred the assimilating and converging learning styles, and they obtained marks in the range of 70-84 percent for the algebraicproblem-solving test. The study reveals a positive relationship between the students’ learning styles and achievement of solving algebraic problems. Likewise, the analysis results of the correlation between learning styles and achievement of solving algebraic problems with respect to the control variable of gender also indicate a positive relationship. These findings may provide some useful ideas for the teachers to consider student-friendly learning styles in designing the lesson instructions so that the algebra teaching process as well as learning outcomes can be further improved.