Moderating Effects of Student Motivation on the Relationship between Learning Styles and Student Engagement

This research examined both the relationship and the effects of learning styles and student engagement at three selected "Universiti Teknologi MARA," (UiTM) Malaysia state campuses using the VARK learning style model. The effects of students' learning styles and their relationships to classroom engagement were analyzed. Three categories of students' majors which were Social Science (SS), Technical Science (TS) and Pure Science (PS) were segregated to identify the moderating effects of student motivation on the relationship between learning styles and student engagement. The results revealed that only visual learning style was found to influence all three dimensions (behavioral, cognitive and emotional) elements of student engagement. These results also showed that visual learners had higher classroom engagement as opposed to both auditory and kinesthetic learners. It was also reported that all elements of student motivation (achievement, recognition, relationship with peers and relationship with lecturers) did significantly moderate the relationship between learning styles and student engagement. It is recommended that instructors should employ varieties of teaching methods to encourage student engagement according to their fields of study. It is further suggested that motivation should be enriched among students to yield higher student classroom engagement.