Prevalent Learning Style among Secondary School Mathematics Students and Its Influence on Gender and Age in Benue State, Nigeria

Abstract

This study analysed the prevalent learning styles (auditory, visual and tactile) among secondary school mathematics students and how this prevalence was influenced by students’ gender and age in Benue State, Nigeria. A sample of 191 students from five randomly selected secondary schools in Makurdi Metropolis was used. Seventy eight males and one hundred and thirteen females with age ranges of 9 – 12 years, 13 – 16 years and 17 – 20 years responded to the mathematics learning style questionnaire (MLSQ). The instrument was made up of 30 statements to be responded to by students. A descriptive survey design was adopted for the study. Three research questions and three hypotheses were framed. The responses obtained was analysed using mean and standard deviation and the two-way ANOVA. The findings obtained revealed that there was no significant difference in the mean score prevalent rate of the auditory, visual and tactile learning styles among mathematics students (P = .16> P = .05), there was no significant difference in the mean score prevalent rate of the auditory, visual and tactile learning styles among male and female mathematics students (P = .09, P = .81, P = .76 respectively) and age had no significant influence on the mean score prevalence of auditory, visual and tactile learning styles among secondary school mathematics students (P  = .97, P = .71, P = .83 respectively). It was concluded that students possessed the ability to utilize and combine all three learning styles with ease, depending on the learning environment or teaching strategy or instruction of the teacher. The recommendation that was drawn suggested that, teachers should be able to accommodate and include in their lessons all three learning styles to help students comprehend the lessons better to avoid learner opposition and misunderstanding.