Students’ Learning Styles in Relation to Service Physical Education Performance

Abstract

This study aimed to determine the students’ learning styles, whether visual, auditory, or kinesthetic learning style, in relation to their Service Physical Education performance in terms of written and practical exam results. The moderating variables of age, gender, academic status, religion, and course were also considered. This was conducted among Service P.E. students of the Mindanao State University, Marawi City, officially enrolled during the 2nd semester, A.Y. 2015 – 2016. This descriptive-correlation study was conducted among 925 respondents (227 male and 588 female respondents). The VARK Learning Styles Questionnaire developed by Victoria Chislett was used to assess their learning styles. The Service P.E. performance was taken from their partial written and practical exams. The majority of the respondents were15-18 years old; most of the respondents were female; most of the respondents were Tuition Privilege status; most of the respondents were Islam believers while others were non-Muslim, and almost all of the respondents were Bachelor of Science (BS) degree pursuers. In terms of learning styles, it was found out that most of the respondents were visual learners. With regard to the Service P.E. performance, most of the respondents received grades of 1.0-1.25 or excellent in their written exams while most of them were rated 1.50-1.75 or very good in their practical exams. The relationship between the variables found out that there were no significant relationships between the moderating variables of age, religion, and course with their respective p-values of 0.272, 0.188, and 0.355 to the independent variable of learning styles. However, there were significant relationships between the moderating variables of gender, academic status and the independent variable of learning styles. Furthermore, age (p = 0.184), academic status (p = 0.385), religion (p = 0.784), and course (p = 0.869) were not significantly related to written exam performance while gender was significantly related to written exam performance. Practical exam performance showed no relationship with the different moderating variables. For the relationship between learning styles and Service P.E. performance, it was revealed that learning styles had a significant relationship between written exam performance, while no relationship existed between learning styles and practical exam performance. Good performance in the written exams matters most in how the students prepare for it. On the other hand, ability, preparation, and constant correct practice will matter the most in preparation for practical exams. Thus, it is recommended that Physical Education administrators formulate plans to further improve the competencies of Physical Education teachers, especially in identifying the different learning styles of their respective students, to provide appropriate teaching approaches that facilitate effective learning experiences among their students. Physical Education teachers should provide enough time for skills practice so that most of their students will have greater chances of obtaining higher ratings in their practical exams. A similar study should be conducted in the future using other variables or using an equal number of respondents in gender and religion.