Matching Teaching/Learning Styles and Students’ Satisfaction

Part of the theoretical literature and researches conducted in the western countries especially in the USA, concerning learning styles and teaching styles, hypothesize that: a) students’ learning styles are different based on their gender, college degree, and major, b) teachers’ teaching style is consistent with their learning style, and c) matching teaching style/learning style would result in better outcomes, including student satisfaction. The major purpose of the study, reported in this paper, was to investigate these postulates about the students and the faculty members of the School ofEducation and Psychology at Shahid Beheshti University of Tehran, Iran.The Learning Style Questionnaire (Peter Honey, 2006) and The Trainer Style Questionnaire (Peter Honey, 2007), which have identical categorization for teaching/learning styles, were used to identify styles, and for identifying students’ satisfaction, Siddharthan’s questionnaire (1999) was employed. The results of the study showed that there were significant differences in the students’ learning styles, based on their gender, college degree and major. The data also revealed that instructor’s teaching styles, whether indicated by themselves—considered as ‘intended teaching style’— or by their students—considered as ‘actualized teaching style’—were consistent with their learning styles, also significant differences were found in teaching styles of the instructors, based on gender and no differences based on academic discipline. The results also indicated that students whoselearning styles were congruent with the instructor’s teaching style were more satisfied than those who did not enjoy this congruity.