The level of match between the learning styles of students and the teaching styles of lecturers of Universities in the field of Management. (One university as a case study)

Abstract

There is an unemployment problem of graduate in Sri Lanka, because of low demand for graduate from business sector. Industry perception views that the Management education is somewhat cognitive and conceptual in approach and lacking in sufficient practice bias and skill orientation. In other words the argument is that the Management education in the universities is still has the features of colonial and traditional era and not match with the current complex changing environment. Keeping in view the criticisms of management education and the competence required for being an effective graduate, this study attempted to explore the learning preferences of the management undergraduates and the teaching methodology in relation to the demand of the field of management. The total sample consists of 100 final year Management and B.com students, 40 lecturers consist of assistant lecturers, lecturers and senior lecturers drowning from a university. The index of learning style- the instrument was developed by Richard M. Felder and Barbara A. Soloman of North Carolina State University was used to measure the four learning styles of students. To assess the perception of the students about the course, another questionnaire was used in this study. Based on the learning styles questionnaire to assess the teaching methods and congruence between the learning style and teaching methodology the researchers used the questionnaire designed by Luciano Mariani, Milan.This study found that most of the management students are active, sensing, visual and sequential learners. This indicates there is a shift of students learning style from traditional to modern except one style of learning. This pattern is common irrespective of race and religious differences, but there is a significant difference found in terms of sex. Although both sex groups show the modern learning styles, females are more conservative than males. Males are end oriented rather than mean oriented. It was found there is a disparity between management students’ style of learning and the teaching methods and styles, in terms of the rate of change. In other words the changing of learning styles of students towards the modern is faster than the changing of teaching methods.