Returns to Different Learning Styles: Evidence from A Microeconomics Course
Abstract:
It is well established in the literature that different students learn differently (see for example Riechmann and Grasha, 1974; Dunn and Dunn, 1999). This led educators to promote the usage of different teaching methods to match students’ different learning styles in order to accommodate a wide variety of learning style preferences. (Fels, 1990, Kolb, 1984). Following the educators’ prescription, a number of instructors made extra investments to incorporate different teaching methods in their classes, but with limited success. As Charkins, O’Toole and Wetzel (1985) pointed out:
It appears that different teaching methods have little impact on student learning. One suggested reason for this seemingly disheartening result is that the distribution of benefits may vary; while certain teaching techniques may help some students learn, they may hinder the learning of other students. ---- If the students’ preference are randomly distributed with regard to learning styles, the gains to some students from a change in method may be offset by the losses to other students unless one can control for the differences in student learning styles.
Since different teachers also have different teaching styles (Riechmann and Grasha, 1974; Lima, 1981), Charkins, O’Toole and Wetzel (1985) developed an independent variable that measured the divergence between the instructor’s teaching style and the student’s learning style. Using this measure they found a negative relationship between the divergence of the teaching and learning styles and student’s learning.