Abstract:

The study investigated the effects of learning styles on the academic performance of biology students in colleges of education in Adamawa, Benue and Taraba States. Expo-facto survey research design was used for the study. Three research questions and four hypotheses guided the study. A sample of 226 Biology students from three Colleges of Education was selected using random sampling techniques. Two instruments, the Preferred Learning Style Assessment Questionnaire (PLSAQ) and Biology Achievement Test (BAT) were used for data collection. The data collected were analyzed using percentage, mean and standard deviation to answer the research questions while ANCOVA was used to test the hypotheses. The findings indicated that the most preferred learning styles by biology students in Colleges of Education are visual, auditory and tactile learning styles. It was also found that there was a significant difference between the mean achievement scores of visual, auditory and tactile learners with the students who prefer tactile learning styles having the highest mean achievement scores. In terms of gender, it was found that there was no significant difference in the mean achievement scores of students with different learning styles based on gender. Based on the findings of this study it was recommended that biology students in Colleges of Education should be guided and provided with learning materials that would enable them to select learning styles that are appropriate and applicable in their study environment for them to achieve higher and that biology teachers should incorporate effective ways of matching their pedagogy with learning preferences of their students to improve and retain learning experiences.

Keywords:

Learning Styles, Academic Performance, Biology Students, Colleges of Education.