The effect of matching learning and teaching styles on the academic achievement

In this research it is aimed to reveal if the matches between learning styles of students and teaching styles of teachers affects the students? academic achievement. In the research the data which was gathered from 227 students studying at Bülent Ecevit University Compulsory Preparatory Program and 13 teachers in 2010- 2011 academic year was included. In the research Personal Information Form developed by the researcher was conducted to identify personal characteristics of students and the teachers. ?Perceptual Learning Styles Questionnaire? was applied to identify the students? learning styles while ?Perceptual Teaching Styles Questionnaire? was used to identify the teachers? teaching styles. Descriptive statistics and independent samples t-test were used for the data analysis. Data were interpreted in the .05 confident interval. Results of the study indicated that majority of the participating students prefers kinesthetic learning style and the least preferred learning style is individual learning style. No significant difference was found between the learning style preferences and the variables (English level, age and gender). The results of the research indicated that matching and mismatching between the learning styles of students and the teaching styles of teachers has no effect on the academic achievement of students.