Impact Of Learning Styles,Perceived Teaching Styles And Their Matching Status On Sub-Saharan African Students' Academic Adjustment In China

Academic adjustment of African students,who are the second largest group of inward international students in China,is a crucial research focus.The research puts a spotlight on the currently understudied sub-Saharan African students who further their studies in Chinese tertiary institutions with an aim to examine three variables that might influence their academic adjustment: 1)their own learning styles;2)perceived teaching styles of their Chinese instructors;3)a match/mismatch between their own learning styles and perceived Chinese teaching styles.A group of sub-Saharan African students with a disciplinary focus on business and science(N = 197)were required to self-assess their learning styles,perceived Chinese teaching styles and their overall academic adjustment through an online survey.The first two variables were assessed through revised versions of Kolb's inventories,while academic adjustment was measured through SACQ scale proposed by Baker and Siryk.Statistical tests in SPSS were used to analyze the data being collected.Data analyses revealed that both learning styles and perceived Chinese teaching styles of sub-Saharan African students had impact on their academic adjustment,whereas the presumptive style matching effect based on Kolb's style match model was not exerted on students' academic adjustment.Specifically,“converging” learning style contributed to better academic adjustment than “diverging” style did,while “coaching” role perceived by learners contributed to better academic adjustment than “evaluating” role did.Based on research findings of the first two research questions,the author proposed a style pairing model that could predict best and worst academic adjustment among sub-Saharan African students with certain disciplinary focus.This study enables sub-Saharan African students to sharpen their awareness of the importance of learning styles in their adjustment to Chinese tertiary education,while Chinese educators are able to adjust their class design to improve learners' in-class perception.In addition,the finding also offers theoretical contribution in proposing an evidence-based style pairing model growing out of Kolb's experiential learning theory.