“See How They Learn”: The Impact of Faculty and Student Learning Styles on Student Performance in Introductory Economics

Abstract

“See How They Learn”: The Impact of Faculty and Student Learning Styles on Student Performance in Introductory Economics

This paper reports the results of a recent study completed at Saint Mary's College of California, in which the TUCE was administered to introductory economics students. Students and instructors also completed the VARK questionnaire to identify which of the sensory modalities they prefer to use to learn information. Results suggest that a strong visual learning preference positively influences student performance. Our finding that neither ethnicity nor gender influence student performance confirms results of prior research, and suggests that ethnicity- and gender-based differences in student performance may be at least partially caused by differences in learning style preferences.