The Distribution of Learning Styles and Types for Hard and Soft Business Majors

Abstract

This study reports on the distribution of Kolb's four learning styles and four learning types for a sample of 437 volunteer management undergraduates divided by sex, hard-soft majors, and by major including accounting, finance, marketing and management information system. The overall results showed a preference for the assimilator learning style (35.4%) and 'thinking' learning type (62.8%). There was no sex difference in the distribution of styles or types, but there was a difference in the hard-soft majors distinction such that there was a higher proportion of women in the soft majors and a higher proportion of men in the hard majors. Among accounting majors there was a preference for the assimilator style (38.5%). Frequencies for the other majors were not large enough to allow separate analyses. Implications are noted for educators, trainers and learners.