Investigating the Match and Mismatch between Students’ Learning Styles and Teacher’s Teaching Styles in a Saudi School: A Case Study

Abstract

This study examines if there is a match or mismatch between students’ learning styles and the teacher’s teaching styles in a classroom at Khalid Bin Alwlid School, Tabarjal, Saudi Arabia. The main objectives of this study are to determine dominant learning styles of the whole secondary grade students and the teacher’s teaching style. This study was carried out as a case study, and the data were analyzed qualitatively and quantitatively. Participants of this study were a class of 15 students and their English language teacher to the first secondary stage. The instruments used for collecting data were Reid’s Perceptual Learning Style Preference Questionnaire (1995), Teachers Teaching Style Preferences Questionnaire (Peacock 2001), and semi-structured interview. The findings of this study indicated that the majority of the students had multiple learning styles with at least auditory and group as their major learning style preferences, followed by kinesthetic, tactile, and visual as their minor learning style preferences. They showed negative preference towards individual style. The major learning style preferences of the English language teacher were visual and individual, followed by tactile and kinesthetic as his minor style preferences, while his negligible teaching style preferences were auditory and group. There was a mismatch between the teacher’s teaching style and the students’ learning style at Khalid Bin Alwlid School, Tabarjal, Saudi Arabia