LEARNING STYLES AND ACADEMIC PERFORMANCE OF STUDENTS IN PHYSICAL AND HEALTH EDUCATION

ABSTRACT: The purpose of this study was to examine learning style an academic performance of students in Physical and Health Education in Oruk Anam Local Government Area. The population of the study consisted (2500) students in Senior Secondary  school. Simple random sampling technique was used to select the sample size of 150 students. Three research hypotheses were formulated to guide the study. The instrument for data collection was students’ raw scores in Physical and Health achievement test. A quazi-experiential design was adopted for the study. Independent t-test formula was used for statistical analysis. The finding reveals that there is a significant difference between students who use audio visual learning styles in Physical and Health Education. The study recommended that teachers should be creative and resourceful by complementing their lessons with standard or improvised local resources to enhance visual and audio learning styles among students. The study conclude that the brilliant performance of students who learned using kinesthetic style depends largely on how learners responded to the learning environment.

CHAPTER ONE

INTRODUCTION

1.1       Background to the study

A learning style refers to an individual’s natural or habitual pattern of acquiring knowledge. Keefeer (2004) defined learning styles as the campsite of characteristics cognitive, affective and physiological factors that serve as relatively stable indicators of how a learner perceives: interacts with and responds to the learning styles as those educational conditions under which a student is most wisely to learn.

Learning style are points along a scale that kept us to discover the different forms of mental representations. The literature basically indicators that there is a wide acceptance of the concept of learning styles, there is even a study providing learning styles Rosenbeing (2009) which say that teaching professions has long recognized the need for innovative instructional activities that relates to the diverse learning styles of learners, there are some questions as to just how meaningful they are to the learning environment.

That is most researchers agree that we have various learning styles and preferences. However, the research tends to agree that it is important when designing learning programs to watch the presentation with the nature of the subject such as providing correct learning methods. It is noted generally that learning process varies from person to person due to the process of biological and psychological difference. Researcher have pointed out that learning techniques among students can contributes either positively or negatively to their academic performance. Hence academic performance is defined as the expected achievement at the end of an academic course of work such as examination. The quality of teaching/learning process largely depends on the teaching/learning strategies use by the teacher. Turner (2003) holds that the extent to which the students achieve richly depends on the strategies use by the teacher.

The implies that a well structured and planned methods or appraises improve that quality of learning. It is believed that a well planned method will east up expected educational outcome. Dun (2001) found that dramatic improvement in students achievement in classroom where good learning strategies have been taken into account and showed that the way things are taught had a greater impact than the content covered in course of study. Therefore, it is believed that when teachers are able to analyze and identify the differences and needs of these students, the educational process is likely to become optimized for both students and teachers.

Learning Styles and Academic Performance of Students in Physical and Health Education

1.2      Statement of the Problem   

There have been identified poor scores in secondary schools students Exanimations in Physical and Health Education. This indication points to how level of academic performance and skills acquisition amongst students.

A number of factors have been reportedly said to be responsible for this low level performance. One of these assumed factors is learning styles, the researcher sought to identify the types of learning styles that could be used to improve academic performance of students in Physical and Health Education and to also confirm or otherwise whether learners learning styles have any relationship on student’s performance. The statement of problem put in a question from therefore is what relationship has learning styles has on academic performance.

Learning Styles and Academic Performance of Students in Physical and Health Education

1.3       Purpose of the study

The main purpose of the study was to find out how learning styles affect academic performance of students in Physical and Health Education in Oruk Anam Local Government Area. The specific objectives of the study were to;

(i)       Examine the influence of visual learning styles on students academic performance in Physical and Health Education.

(ii)      Find out if there is influence of auditory learning tyle on students academic performance in Physical and Health Education.

Originally posted on April 28, 2021 @ 12:15 pm