A Study of Relationship between Learning Preferences and Academic Achievement

Major focus of this study was on visual, auditory and kinesthetic learning preferences of college students as given in Dunn and Dunn model (Dunn Dunn, 1993) and their relationship with academic achievement of students. The nature of study was quantitative, descriptive and correlational. All (male and female, science and arts) students enrolled in B.A. /B.Sc. and BS programs of all public sector colleges of Punjab province constituted the population of study. The study was delimited to six districts of Punjab province with two districts from each region (North, Central, South Punjab). Three-stage cluster sampling technique was used to select the sample of 1200 students. Barsch Learning Preferences Inventory (BLPI) (visual, auditory, kinesthetic) developed by Barsch (1996) was used as a research instrument. Product Moment correlation coefficient was used to find out relationship between each learning preference and academic achievement. Furthermore, differences among low achieving and high achieving students with respect to their learning preferences were analyzed by applying z-test. It was concluded that college students were predominantly visual in their learning preference. High achieving students were also more visual and kinesthetic. Further, there was also a significant relationship between auditory learning preference and academic achievement.