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INTRODUCTION

A student learning style is different from one style to another according to inclination of
students respectively. Different learning styles arise from the nature of the difference between
the individual and the unique values appearing in the students in acquiring knowledge.
Therefore, the teacher should be served with a variety of teaching methods, depending on the
state student. Through learning styles, teachers can identify the strengths and weaknesses of
each student. All educators should have a professional knowledge of the psychology student
who refers to the way students learn, which is associated with learning styles, interests and
abilities, attitudes and beliefs and learning problems faced.

Learning style refers to a person's style or way of learning and it also can be attributed to the
way a student learns to understand a lesson that he has learnt. The student's learning style can
be identified through observing the treatment of manifest. It is a way of concentrating the
individual to understand and remember new information or skills. Therefore, learning style is
a consistent behaviour which may reflect underlying matters of learning.

There are various opinions about the concept of learning styles among researchers and their
study with variety of approaches such as Dunn and Dunn, Kolb, Felder and Silverman, Slavin
and Honey and Mumford. Each providing a different focuses on the aspects under study and
can be seen from the models of learning styles presented.
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STATEMENT OF PROBLEMS

Students' learning style is an important element that can affect a student's ability to achieve
something better. Each student has different learning style that process the information.
Although nearly all students in school have the same academic potential, but their learning
style may not be the same. The learning styles match the subjects, methods and learning
materials. Each individual has their own learning style. Some students like to be guided, the
rest may prefer to study in group and some can perform better if they are given the chance to
be freely involved in their learning activities. Some students get actively involve, being
observant and listening to the music while learning. These are related to students learning
style which has to be identified by teachers in ensuring the teaching and learning process can
be implemented effectively to achieve the objective. Without being aware of these learning
styles, students tend to be left behind of what they learn. The effectiveness of teaching and
learning process is dependable on teachers’ interaction with students as well as
communication among students and how these students communicate with their learning
material. Teachers play a vital role in teaching which requires in depth understanding of
learning process and students’ characteristics which differ in development stages. However,
conflicts do occur in teaching and learning is related to the difference of learning style among
teachers and students. Teachers tend to teach according to their learning style with
assumption that all students have the same learning style as they are. This is contradicted with
who stated that students prefer to learn based on their own learning style. Therefore, teaching
style and learning style should be matched in order to yield a high quality of learning.

IDENTIFYING LEARNING STYLES

Learning styles can be classified into various categories, for instance, sensory, auditory,
visual, and tactile. Dunn and Dunn (1992) reported that learning styles is an individual
reaction to several environmental, emotional, psychological, and sociological factors.
Students have their own characteristics. There are verbal learners who watch and see rather
than read and listen. They are hands-on and learn by doing and practicing. They learn in
groups and are dependent learners who need instructor guidance for clear understanding. The
goal in understanding the students is to gain experience and to apply existing knowledge to
new situations. The role of the teacher is to create learning environments for students
handling the presented tasks.
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RESEARCH OBJECTIVES

The purpose of the study was to determine students’ learning style and mathematics
achievement among boarding school students of HPS. The research objectives are as follows:

 To determine the type of students learning style among students.

 To determine the difference of learning style based on gender.
 To identify the relationship between type of learning style and mathematics achievement.

RESEARCH QUESTIONS

 What are the types of learners that represent students?

Ho: There is no significant difference between active, sensing, visual and sequential
styles among upper secondary school students.
Ha: There is significant difference between active, sensing, visual and sequential styles
among upper secondary school students.

 What are the differences between each type of learner of learning styles?
Ho: There is no significant difference between active and reflective processing
dimensions.
Ha: There is a significant difference between active and reflective processing
dimensions.

 How do students perceive their own cognitive learning?

Knowledge:
Ho: There is no significant difference between active and reflective processing
dimensions.
Ha: There is a significant difference between active and reflective processing
dimensions.

Skills:
Ho: There is no significant difference between active and reflective processing
dimension.
Ha: There is a significant difference between active and reflective processing dimension.
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Problem solving abilities:

Ho: There is no significant difference between active and reflective processing

dimensions.
Ha: There is a significant difference between active and reflective processing
dimensions.

 How do the students master their cognitive learning in the English subject?
Knowledge:
Ho: There is no significant difference between sensing and intuitive learning styles.
Ha: There is significant difference between sensing and intuitive learning styles

Skills:
Ho: There is no significant difference between sensing and intuitive learning styles.
Ha: There is a significant difference between sensing and intuitive learning styles.

Problem Solving abilities:

Ho: There is no significant difference sensing and intuitive learning style.
Ha: There is a significant difference sensing and intuitive learning styles.

 What are differences between input dimension (visual and verbal learning styles) and
students‟ mastery of cognitive learning?

Knowledge:
Ho: There is no significant difference between visual and verbal learning styles.
Ha: There is a significant difference between visual and verbal learning styles.

Skills:
Ho: There is no significant difference between visual and verbal learning styles.
Ha: There is a significant difference between visual and verbal learning styles.

Problem solving abilities:

Ho: There is no significant difference visual and verbal learning style.
Ha: There is a significant difference visual and verbal learning style.
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CONCEPTIONAL FRAMEWORK

This study was carried out using exploratory method to observe and analyse the learning style
of which method is more relevant and applicable to the students. A qualitative approach was
used to shed further light on the results and thus gain more insight into effective teaching and
learning methods in Mathematics. To this end, 10 top-achievers in Mathematics (boys and
girls) were purposefully selected from higher secondary level because they are more
receptive and more developed in mind. In interviews, the learners explained how they studied
Mathematics, and which teaching methods worked or did not work well for them. The
interviews were audio recorded and transcribed verbatim, before data analysis. The three
main questions formed the categories of the quantitative data, while the analysis was bottom-
up within each category, starting with the identification of the units of meaning.

The correlation between visual and auditory learning is significant, positive and medium,
likewise for the correlations between kinaesthetic and visual learning, and between group-
learning and kinaesthetic learning. This means that the more the learner is able to use one
learning style, the more he or she is also able to implement another style. As expected, there
is a significant negative and relatively high correlation between individual- and group-
learning; thus, the more the learners are group learners in Mathematics, the less they are
inclined to be individual learners.

Quantitative findings when the high achievers were queried regarding how they learned
Mathematics, their responses indicated that context impacted on learning style preferences, in
the sense that different learning styles were used when studying at home and in the
classroom. At home, the learners relied heavily on individual learning, possibly related to the
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fact that there was no one at home to work with, as well as reading and writing. When
preparing for tests and examinations the learners implemented study strategies that included
reading the notes in their exercise books and textbooks, revisiting concepts which they had
struggled with in class, investigating other methods on the internet for doing algebra, re-
doing exercises from their notebooks, practising the examples and topics from their textbook,
and completing previous test papers. They only used memorisation to recall mathematical
formulae. When the learners were asked what forms of teaching worked best for them in
Mathematics classrooms, they generally referred to reading/ writing (as above), in addition to
auditory and group-learning. Reading/writing in the Mathematics class included working on
quizzes, and completing exercises, worksheets, and past examination papers. They also
expressed the need to interact with the teachers to sort out problem areas. They appreciated
teachers who gave detailed explanations and many examples, and who ensured that they
understood the work. Thus, they relied heavily on their auditory learning styles as a way of
understanding the work explained in class and in constructing knowledge. In this regard, a
female learner stated: I like Mathematics teachers who know where possible problems are
and go over the weak areas. Apart from group learning with a teacher, reference was also
made to learning from classmates, who could sometimes explain concepts better than the
teacher. When the learners were asked about the teachers’ teaching methods, which did not
work well for them in the Mathematics classroom, they indicated they were not in favour of
teachers who created a negative learning environment by being moody, unsupportive,
impatient, sarcastic, and critical, since this affected their self-esteem. Two of the learners
stated, The Mathematics teacher makes the learners feel dumb (Female). I am scared to ask
questions as the teacher replies, ‘I do not want to explain that again’ (Male). The learners,
especially those who relied heavily on an auditory learning style in class, were frustrated by
poor explanations and by boring teachers, who discussed the work in a monotonous tone, and
merely read out the learning material. Learners with reading/writing learning style were also
annoyed by teachers who did not check their homework, so that there was no constructive
criticism offered. Finally, some teachers lacked knowledge of the subject, and had to rely on
the support from their colleagues to explain abstract concepts in class. On being asked how
the teaching of Mathematics could be improved, the learners suggested that the Mathematics
teachers ought to create positive learning environments in class by building the self-esteem of
the learners, by ensuring that the classes are relaxed to reduce anxiety, by explaining clearly,
and by being responsive to questions, which would support auditory learning. The learners
also suggested that peer tutoring be promoted, which is a form of group learning. The
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learners should also be encouraged to make use of the website, examsolutions.com, which
encourages both visual and individual learning.

RATIONALE OF STUDY

The achievers in Mathematics relied on their auditory learning styles, in addition to their
reading or writing styles to study Mathematics. The low achievers relied on others, as well as
on a kinaesthetic style, and on writing. This suggests that the learners who were not able to
study Mathematics at home on their own in preparation for tests and examinations, performed
poorly in the subject. What is important here is that the learners needed to have mastered the
relevant Mathematical skills, including the foundational concepts and insights, to be able to
study on their own. In order to empower struggling learners to reach a level of competence
where they might continue to study individually at home, efficient support by their teachers
and peers is invaluable to increase their ‘zone of proximal development’. Group-learning in
class has also been recommended by the top-achievers, even though the individuals in both
groups did not fully agree in respect of their preferences for group learning. The impact of
group learning may be influenced by how the groups are formed, where one study in
particular has indicated that it is better to group the high achievers together, while the poor
performers ought to be clustered with the middle achievers for the effective learning of
Mathematics to take place. In this study, researcher is required to identify the types of
students learning style, and it is necessary to understand the students’ ability of coping with
the understanding and how researcher is able to apply the different ways of teaching to the
different learners in the classroom.
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RESEARCH METHODOLOGY
Researcher would use experimental research to study the ability of the learners’ learning
style. Researcher will choose students randomly for samples and to examine the scores of
which students’ performance is better in the different learning style. Therefore,
questionnaires will be given to the students for feedbacks to test which category they most
belong to the style of learning.

SAMPLINGS
The targeted audience will be from schools in Johor Bahru and the participants should be
ranging from 15 to 17 years old due to their maturity and developed mind. Students will be
randomly selected from different classes to avoid any bias preferences. Sample size should be
approximately 300 students in total from different schools in Johor Bahru.

QUESTIONNAIRES

The questionnaire will be set in multiple choice questions with the range from 1 to 5 points in
the Liker scale to test which senses do they belong to mostly, so that researcher can identify
which learning style they are most suited. Analysis will be conducted with the data collected
using the chi-square to test for its normality and independence, degrees of freedom (DF)
which is the number of independent values or quantities which can be assigned to a statistical
distribution. and p-value which is the probability of its significant value.
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DATA COLLECTION

There are 6 types of data collection techniques. These methods help researchers to identify
their purpose and objective of the type of research they want to work on to prove and to
support their theories and studies.

DATA COLLECTION TECHNIQUES 

Technique Key Facts

 Interviews can be conducted in person or over the telephone
 Interviews can be done formally (structured), semi-structured,
or informally
Interviews  Questions should be focused, clear, and encourage open-ended
responses
 Interviews are mainly qualitative in nature

 Responses can be analysed with quantitative methods by

assigning numerical values to Likert-type scales
Questionnaires and  Results are generally easier (than qualitative techniques) to
Surveys analyse
 Pre-test/Post-test can be compared and analysed

 Allows for the study of the dynamics of a situation, frequency

counts of target behaviours, or other behaviours as indicated by
needs of the evaluation
 Good source for providing additional information about a
Observations particular group, can use video to provide documentation
 Can produce qualitative (e.g., narrative data) and quantitative
data (e.g., frequency counts, mean length of interactions, and
instructional time)

 A facilitated group interview with individuals that have

something in common
 Gathers information about combined perspectives and opinions
Focus Groups
 Responses are often coded into categories and analysed
thematically
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 Involves studying a single phenomenon

 Examines people in their natural settings
Ethnographies, Oral  Uses a combination of techniques such as observation,
History, and Case interviews, and surveys
Studies  Ethnography is a more holistic approach to evaluation
 Researcher can become a confounding variable

 Consists of examining existing data in the form of databases,

meeting minutes, reports, attendance logs, financial records,
Documents and newsletters, etc.
Records  This can be an inexpensive way to gather information but may
be an incomplete data source

However, in my analyse of my project, I would find that I may need to choose to combine a
few types of data collection techniques because of the complications of testing the students
using the Neuro-linguistic programming (NLP) to test on their intellectual of how they apply
into the Mathematical content of learning.

Although the whole concept is under the exploratory method, there are some surveying and
questionnaires technique involved to test on their observatory (visual) and feeling
(kinaesthetic), observational method is also used to observe their behaviour when they are in
the state of their natural condition of learning where it may involve in all 3 types of learning
style.

PROPOSE DATA ANALYSIS

The use the deductive approach because I am searching for the similarities and differences of
the students’ learning pattern when they are being approached with the same or similar
problem-solving questions. How will students who subconsciously using visual style
overcome the problem? Are there any similarities in this group of students; are the any
similarities in the students using kinaesthetic style or auditory style?
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LIMITATION OF STUDY

Time is the main factor that limits furthering the study of the students’ ability of their
learning styles. Thus, small group of students are allowed in class to test for the significance
and meaning of the research.

RESEARCH ETHICS

Protecting the anonymity and confidentiality of research participants is a practical component

of research ethics. Participants will typically only be willing to volunteer information,
especially information of a private or sensitive nature, if the researcher agrees to hold such
information in confidence.

CLOSURE

Brief summary of the research question is being investigated, and the research procedures
being employed and the results are being obtained. There will be discussion on the
implications of the findings of their meaning and significance. Also, discussion about the
limitations of the study, such as time, unresolved problems and weaknesses, if any. And
lastly, researcher will suggest for future research.
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REFERENCES

1. Tengku Sarina Aini Tengku Kasim and Yusmini Md. Yusoff, 2006. Kaedah mengajar dan
kemahiran interpersonal guru. Kuala Lumpur: PTS Professional Publishing Sdn. Bhd.

2. Tengku Zawawi Tengku Zainal, 2009. Isu pengajaran matematik: Kepercayaan dan
pengetahuan pedagogikal kandungan guru. Jurnal Pendidikan Malaysia, 34(1): 131-153.

3. Baharom Mohamad and Iliyas Hashim, 2010. Gaya pengajaran dan pembelajaran.
Kuala Lumpur: PTS Profesional Publishing Sdn. Bhd.

4. Dunn, K. and R. Dunn, 1987. Teaching student through their individual learning styles: A
practical approaches. Reston, VA: Reston Publishing Company.

5. Abdul Rahim Hamdan, Mohamad Najib Ghaffar, Jamaluddin Ramli and Ahmad
JohariSihes, 2008. Taksonomi gaya pembelajaran dan motivasi pelajar dewasa. Dipetik
daripada http://www.eprints.utm.my/ 7865/1/78111.pdf.

6. Rief, S.F., 2008. Bagaimana mendekati dan mendidik kanak-kanak. Kuala Lumpur: Institut
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