Investigating Students’ Learning Styles and Teachers’ Attitudes to Improve their Teaching Practices: The Case of Master One Students in the Department of English, Mouloud Mammeri University of Tizi-Ouzou
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Date
2019
Authors
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Journal ISSN
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Publisher
Université Mouloud Mammeri Tizi Ouzou
Abstract
The purpose of this study is to investigate students’ learning styles and teachers’ attitudes
towards them to improve their teaching practices in the Department of English at Mouloud
Mammeri University. This study is built around the theoretical framework Visual Auditory and
Kinesthetic (VAK) to Visual, Auditory, Read/write and Kinesthetic (VARK) by Neil Fleming
(2001).To achieve this work, the mixed methods approach was adopted using both quantitative
and qualitative method for collecting and analyzing data. For the collection of data, we opted
for the use of three instruments; a questionnaire administrated to 90 Master one students,
10classroom observations with a checklist of 08 items and a structured interview conducted
with five (5) teachers. The results of the questionnaire reveal that each type of learner is quite
different from others. Visual learners can learn better, when they see, observe and are in
contact with the things. Quite opposite to visual are the auditory learners who learn best when
they listen or hear things. The other two brands are comparable in the sense that they involve
the physical activities and strategies for productive teaching and learning. As far as kinesthetic
learners are concerned, they only learn best when they do things based on concepts empirically.
Read write learners are those who are concerned with the conventional way of learning.
Furthermore, the findings of the classroom observations have shown that attitudes are
examined in terms of three components: their beliefs and knowledge, feelings and behavior and
that the teachers have good attitudes towards their students’ learning styles. In addition, the
results of the teachers’ interview have revealed that all teachers have agreed that taking into
account students’ learning styles help them improve their teaching practices.
Description
30cm ; 58p.
Keywords
Learning, VARK (Visual, Auditory, Read/Write and Kinesthetic), Attitudes, Learning Styles, Teaching Practices.
Citation
Language and Communication