• Media type: E-Article
  • Title: Does the Learning Styles Questionnaire Measure Style or Process? A Reply to Swailes and Senior (1999)
  • Contributor: Sadler‐Smith, Eugene
  • Published: Wiley, 2001
  • Published in: International Journal of Selection and Assessment, 9 (2001) 3, Seite 207-214
  • Language: English
  • DOI: 10.1111/1468-2389.00173
  • ISSN: 0965-075X; 1468-2389
  • Origination:
  • Footnote:
  • Description: Swailes and Senior’s (1999) examination of the psychometric properties and factor structure of the Learning Styles Questionnaire (LSQ) raised a number of questions regarding the instrument’s construct validity and the relationship between learning style and learning process. Swailes and Senior argued that there may be three learning styles as opposed to the four posited by Honey and Mumford (1986), however, they did not include a three‐factor model in their confirmatory factor analysis and hence it is unclear if a three‐factor solution represents an improvement on a four‐factor solution. Furthermore, the present study draws a distinction between style and process and an argument is presented which contends that the three‐factor and four‐factor solutions represent process models, as opposed to the style models embodied in Kolb’s theory. This reply attempts to examine two‐ three‐ and four‐factor solutions for the LSQ. The evidence appears to favour the conventional four‐factor model, which may indicate that the LSQ measures individuals’ preferences for each of four stages of an experiential learning process and raises the question of its relationship with style per se.