Returns to different 'learning styles': Evidence from a course in microeconomics

An extant literature suggests students learn differently. Previous studies in Economics courses have used the Myers-Briggs Personality Type indicator to proxy for preferred learning style. The four dichotomous personality characteristics yield 16 potential personality types. Previous studies found some personality types are more successful in economics classes than other types. However, evidence on the impact on student learning of a student's personality type matching their professor's type has been mixed. We use a continuous measure of learning style (left hemisphere/right hemisphere thinking preference) and find that for most instructors, after controlling for student inputs, the students' final grades do not seem to be mediated by the deviations in the students' hemispheric preference from that of the instructors'. We also attempt to adjudicate the inconsistent results of previous research in terms of students learning and matching their instructor's type.