Improving Student Performance with ILS Based Student-Teacher Pairings

Abstract

Students are often assigned to instructors by student schedule or request. We present findings that assigning students to instructors based on learning style similarity can improve learning. We assume that instructors teach consistent with their learning style, and use the Felder and Silverman Index of Learning Styles (ILS) to describe learning style as a vector in R4. We examine the effect on grade difference a as a function of the learning style “distance” between students and their instructors . X2 tests show that the students (N=300) who were more similar (nearer) to their instructor performed better (p-value: 0.000453), and linear regression indicates that student performance could improve by up to 2% by being assigned to a more similar instructor. Our study shows that, with our three novel approaches (standardized learning style measurement, differenced grades, and the consideration of different norms), our data indicate a mild support for using the idea behind the meshing hypothesis to provide recommendations for student-teacher pairing.