THE EFFECTS AND INTERACTION OF GENDER AND LEARNING STYLES ON TENTH-GRADE STUDENTS' MATHEMATICAL REPRESENTATION ABILITY

Abstract

This study examined whether tenth-grade students’ mathematical representation ability on systems of linear inequalities in two variables differs by gender and learning style, and whether these two factors interact. An ex post facto design was employed. Of the 313 tenth-grade students at SMAN 1 Kota Pariaman, West Sumatra, 223 students with a dominant learning style were selected as the sample. The sample comprised 87 male and 136 female students; by learning style, 65 were auditory, 148 kinesthetic, and 10 visual learners. Representation ability was measured using a validated essay test covering verbal, symbolic, and visual representations. Because the visual group was too small (7 males and 3 females), the main analysis was a 2 × 2 two-way ANOVA on auditory and kinesthetic students (n = 213). For comparison, a full 2 × 3 model, an ANOVA with Type II sums of squares, and Welch’s t-tests were also conducted. Female students scored higher than male students, F(1, 209) = 6.47, p = .012, partial η² = .030 (M = 60.18 vs. 53.25). In contrast, the 2 × 3 factorial model yielded non-significant results, owing to the very small number of visual learners. Learning style had no significant effect, F(1, 209) = 0.25, p = .618, and there was no interaction between gender and learning style, F(1, 209) < 0.01, p = .988. These findings indicate a modest advantage for female students, whereas learning-style categories provide no basis for distinguishing students’ representation ability. The study also demonstrates that unbalanced cell sizes can alter conclusions in factorial ANOVA.