High School Male and Female Learning-Style Similarities and Differences in Diverse Nations

Abstract The authors investigated gender differences among the learning styles of 1,637 adolescents from 5 countries—Bermuda, Brunei, Hungary, Sweden, and New Zealand. Statistical analyses included a multivariate analysis of variance with 22 dependent variables (learning-style elements) and 2 between-subjects variables (gender and country) and a discriminant analysis. The alpha level was established at the p < .05 level. There were significant main effects for gender with medium effect sizes and statistically significant and large effect sizes for country main effects. There also were statistically significant and medium effect sizes for the interactions of country by gender. On the basis of these findings, the authors maintain that gender-based patterns of differences in learning styles are observable, and they encourage educators to consider all learners' learning-style strengths to maximize instructional outcomes.