The Index of Learning Styles as Predictors of Cave Hill Undergraduate Chemistry Students' Achievement in Inorganic Chemistry

Abstract

This study was conducted to determine the learning styles of the undergraduate chemistry students at the University of the West Indies (the UWI) Cave Hill Campus and to see if they made any contribution to the academic achievement scores of the chemistry students in two aspects of inorganic chemistry: group theory and non-group theory chemistry. An adapted index of learning styles questionnaire was used to determine the learning styles of the undergraduate chemistry students. The reliability of the questionnaire was determined using the Cronbach’s alpha. A total of 58 students participated in the study and the data collected was analyzed by t-test, ANOVA and linear regression via the Predictive Analysis Software (PASW) at a confidence level of 0.05. The study showed that the majority of the chemistry students were active, sensate, visual and sequential learners. The contribution of the learning styles as predictors of a chemistry student’s academic achievement was negligible and not statistically significant in either group theory or non-group theory chemistry. However, the active/reflective learning style category was the highest contributor towards non-group theory chemistry whereas the sequential/global learning style category was the highest contributor towards academic achievement in group theory chemistry.

DOI: 10.5901/ajis.2013.v2n2p299