ii DECLARATION Student number: 6600581 I declare that THE RELATIONSHIP BETWEEN STUDENT ACADEMIC ACHIEVEMENT AND STUDENT LEARNING STYLES IN A MULTICULTURAL SENIOR SCHOOL is my own work and that all the sources that I have used or quoted have been indicated and acknowledged by means of complete references. 15 December 2015 SIGNATURE DATE iii ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS I would like to express my gratitude to the following people who were a great help in the completion of this thesis:  Professor Salomé

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... ze for her excellent supervision,  The Headmaster and the Board of the International School of South Africa for allowing me to conduct the empirical research at the school,  All the students who participated in the empirical research,  Dr Liezel Korf for her work on the statistics,  Professor Eleanor Lemmer for editing the thesis,  My father who has always been an inspiration, and  My husband and my son who gave me great support throughout the whole process. iv SUMMARY Since 1994 South African classrooms have become more culturally diverse. In order to teach effectively in such an environment, teachers need to use strategies which meet the needs of all the students. One way of addressing this challenge is to consider learning styles theory. Teachers need to understand how individual students of all cultures learn, and which specific learning styles are significantly related to academic achievement. In order to investigate this relationship, a study was conducted at an independent multicultural senior school in the North West Province of South Africa. The aim of the research was to gather information on the learning style preferences of the students at the school; the relationship between the students' academic achievements in English and mathematics and their learning style; and finally, the relationship between the students' nationality, gender, form and age and their learning styles as well as their academic achievements in English and mathematics. A mixed methods research design was used. Data was collected by means of a structured questionnaire that was completed by a sample of 240 students of different forms, genders and nationalities. This was followed by individual interviews with ten top achieving students. The study found that the predominant learning style amongst the students in the school was individual learning. This particular learning style was also most significantly related to academic achievements in English and mathematics. The study further determined that nationality did not significantly influence students' learning styles but gender and age did. Female students were found to be more inclined to be individual learners. Younger students were also found to be auditory learners to a greater extent than older students. Regarding the studying of English and mathematics, it was found that female students generally used auditory learning styles whilst male students preferred kinaesthetic learning styles. Lastly, the study found that the average achievements in mathematics deteriorated as the students got older and the worst performing form was the Form 6s. To this end, various suggestions were made as to how learning styles v could be considered to improve learning. Recommendations for further study were highlighted along with the limitations of this research.