A Comparison of Learning Styles Between Gifted and Non-Gifted High School Students

A comparison of learning styles was made among 100 10th-grade high school students who had been identified as gifted/talented (n = 34) or not; the latter group further distinguished between those students who were college-bound (n = 32) and those not college-bound (n = 34). The Learning Styles Inventory assessed students' reliance on Synthesis-Analysis, Elaborative Processing, Fact Retention, and Study Methods—the first two strategies reflect deeper, more involved levels of processing and learning new information, while the second two are shallower and simpler. Contrary to expectation, gifted/talent students did not report differential reliance on a particular learning style as the relative preference of a particular style was similar among the gifted and non-gifted student groups. There were obvious differences in the degree to which students used each strategy—gifted students used each of the four to a greater extent relative to college-bound students who, in turn, used the strategies more extensively relative to those not college bound. There were no gender differences. Implications of the findings were considered.