Felder and Silverman's Index of Learning Styles and Honey and Mumford's Learning Styles Questionnaire: How do they compare and do they predict academic performance?

Abstract

Samples of engineering and business students at undergraduate, postgraduate and post-experience levels at two UK universities completed the Index of Learning Styles (ILS) (N = 284) or the (Learning Styles Questionnaire LSQ) (N = 182) and a biographical data questionnaire. Broad psychological aspects of the two learning style instruments are examined and compared. Psychometric properties of the instruments, including factor structure, internal reliability and inter-scale correlation are analysed. Potential limitations are commented on, in particular those related to the construct validity and relatively low internal reliability of the ILS scales (alpha = 0.41 to 0.65). These compare with alphas of 0.59 to 0.74 for the LSQ. Relationships between the scales are discussed and a circumplex arrangement of the LSQ is proposed. Proposals for augmenting the circumplex are made. Academic performance results and scores on each of the two instruments are compared. The general lack of significant correlations between learning style scores and performance in these samples is discussed. Conclusions are drawn about the disappointing psychometric robustness of the measures, the activity-centred nature of learning styles and the advantages of viewing styles as a circumplex.