Do Learning Styles Influence Students’ Understanding of Chemistry Concepts and Academic Performance in Chemistry?

The study was conducted on 167 grade 11 natural science students in two preparatory schools in Ethiopia. It was designed to predict the extent of variation in academic performance in some fundamental chemical concepts in the topics: Atomic structure & periodic table, and chemical bonding and structure from variations in Felder-Silverman’s learning styles. Data were collected through Amharic version of Felder-Soloman’s Index of Learning Style (ILS) questionnaire and chemistry test. The data showed that 1.2% variation in academic performance in the fundamental concepts in chemistry was linked to the variations in Felder-Silverman’s learning styles, and this variation was not statistically significant at α=0.05. This implies that the role of learning styles on academic performance on the fundamental concepts considered in this study was not statistically significant. Hence, from this study it can be possible to conclude that the influence of learning styles on academic performance is less likely to be the same across fundamental concepts in chemistry. DOI: 10.5901/jesr.2013.v3n5167