Description
Learning styles influence students in all levels of education and a mismatch of teaching styles to preferred learning styles makes learning a stressful experience to many learners. Students in private and public secondary schools in Nairobi County have been performing unsatisfactorily in sciences in the last seven years. Literature review revealed that there is a gap of analysing the contribution of mismatching teaching styles with preferred learning styles to the performance in biology and geography in Nairobi County. The study was based on Felder learning style theory, Keirsey personality patterns theory of learning and teaching style theory by Grasha. The objective of this study was to determine the effect of traditional teaching and teaching according to preferred learning styles on students’ performance, in biology and geography in secondary schools in Nairobi County. The study employed quasi-experimental research design, which utilised a pre-test, treatment of experimental group and a post-test to estimate impact of an intervention of mismatch due to traditional teaching styles to preferred leaning styles a purposive sample of 1,322 students from 18,536 Form Two Students in private and public schools randomly selected for the study. Multivariate analysis of variance (MANOVA), in general linear model (GLM) of performance of students taught according to traditional and preferred learning styles, revealed that students taught according to preferred learning styles had statistically significant higher mean scores in biology and geography (p = .000). In conclusion, this study is to sensitise teachers of the need to identify and teach their learners according to their preferred learning styles in order to enhance their performance in sciences, recommends the ministry of education science and technology in Kenya to in-service, and train teachers to acquire the skills of detecting learning style preferences of students.
Key terms: Learning styles, teaching styles, match, performance, and biology and geography
