© Kamla-Raj 2013 J Hum Ecol, 41(3): 263-273 (2013) Matching/Mismatching of Teaching and Learning Styles in Rural Learning Ecologies of Lesotho: Does it Enhance Academic Achievement M. J. Letele, G. Alexander * and Z. I. Swanepoel Department Psychology of Education, University of the Free State, South Africa * E-mail: alexanderg@ufs.ac.za KEYWORDS Rural Learning Ecology. Learning Styles. Academic Achievement. Teaching Styles. Secondary Schools ABSTRACT The Lesotho Junior Certificate results between 2003 and 2006 indicate that in the rural secondary schools of Lesotho the pass rate ranged from 51% to 58%. These figures are low compared to those in the urban schools for the same years which ranged from 70% to 72%. In addition, the Teaching Service Department shows that there was 40% of unqualified teachers in these rural schools in 2003 and 35% in 2007. There seems to be a correlation between the high numbers of unqualified teachers and low academic achievement of learners in these schools. This study was undertaken to determine the extent to which matching teaching and learning styles enhances academic achievement of learners in the rural secondary school ecologies of Lesotho, with the view to improve academic achievement of such schools. The Solomon Felder Index of Learning Styles (SFILS) and self- designed teaching style questionnaire were used using 190 learners and 95 teachers from rural secondary schools, respectively. The empirical findings indicate that mismatches of teaching and learning styles largely inhibit academic achievement of learners while matching them largely enhances this achievement. The findings of this research indicated that mismatches do exist in the teaching styles of teachers and their learners’ learning styles and that matching teaching and learning styles enhances academic achievement of learners in rural learning ecologies. In this regard, it is recommended that: Teachers should match their teaching styles with the learning styles of their learners in most lessons to enhance their learners’ academic achievement. INTRODUCTION Throughout the world, governments and other education stakeholders advocate quality education and education for all. Lesotho is no exception to this advocacy, which is evidenced as one of the educational objectives in the Lesotho Ministry of Education and Training (LMOET) (LMOET 2005). Among educational issues that have received the significant atten- tion is knowledge about teaching and learning styles’ theories (Opdenakker and Van Damme 2006; Morrison et al. 2006). Numerous research endeavors attempt to explain and address the learning styles of learners, and consider a learn- ing style as the consistent pattern of behaviour and performance by which an individual ap- proaches a learning experience (Ford and Chen 2001; Graf et al. 2007). While, the recognition of students’ learning styles is regarded by many educators as a vital part of an effective teaching strategy (Morrison et al. 2003), some research attempts on learning styles have focused on enhancing learners’ academic achievement (Kolb and Kolb 1999; Ford and Chen 2001; Dasari 2006). From these attempts, it has generally been found that when learners’ learning styles are matched by the design of the curriculum, with the learning styles of their teachers, or with ap- propriate teaching styles, academic achievement improves (Dunn and Dunn 1979; Felder 1993; Ford and Chen 2001). With the notion that over the past two decades, educationists have ex- pressed increasing concern about the number of learners who fail in the secondary and high schools of African countries (Motsau 1990; Cal- itz 2001), it is worthwhile to determine the influ- ence of matching/mismatching teaching and learning styles on learners’ academic achieve- ment in Lesotho. This country is characterized by comparatively low academic achievement in secondary schools, especially in the rural areas (LMOET 2005, 2008) which in itself impacts se- verely on their respective learning ecologies. Within the ambit of this study, a rural learning ecology refers to a set of contexts set in chal- lenging physical spaces such as various popu- lation densities, small and scattered, ranging from bare lands, foothills to mountain areas with deep valleys and rivers- in this context opportunities for learning are provided (Barron 2006; UNAIDS 2002). These learning ecologies are representa-