The association between learning styles and perception of teaching quality

Abstract

Purpose – Although learning styles and teaching quality have been studied separately, the association between the association between the two has yet to be identified. The purpose of this paper is to establish the relationship between students’ learning styles with students’ perceptions of teaching quality. Design/methodology/approach – The study used survey responses from 272 undergraduate students. All 80 items in the Honey and Mumford’s (1986) Learning Styles Questionnaire and all 46 teaching quality items (Thompson, 2002) were used to assess learning styles and perceptions of teaching quality, respectively. Structural equation modelling was used to investigate the relationships between learning styles and perception of teaching quality. Findings – Results indicate learners with dominant reflector or activist styles are influenced in their perceptions of teaching quality of their teacher or lecturer. No perceptions of teaching quality relationships were found for students with dominant theorist or pragmatist learning style. Practical implications – Recognising that perceptions of teaching quality impacts on some students, teachers and lecturers may consider and articulate the type of learning they would prefer students to adopt for a particular class. As an example, a teacher might ask students who would normally see themselves as active learners to relax into the lecture mode of delivery and reflect on what is said in the lecture, to take time to consider what is said. Originality/value – This study combines the two important constructs of learning and perception of teaching quality to provide insight into the relationship between the two.