Gender and Gender Identity Differences in Learning Styles

Abstract

In the past decade, extensive research on gender and learning styles has produced a multitude of findings: gender differences in learning styles are small on average, but across studies quite different results are observed. In the present study, this heterogeneity is the central focus of our attention. Two possible interpretations concerning the educational context and the concept of gender identity are investigated: the teacher and the subject he or she teaches. Besides the variable gender as a dichotomous variable, the variable gender identity is included to reflect the theoretical standpoint of the social construction of gender differences. Using multivariate techniques on a data set of 432 adult secondary students, the observed relations between gender, gender identity and learning styles are described. Gender identity turns out to explain more variance in the use of learning styles compared to gender. Furthermore, it is shown that gender (identity) differences in learning styles do not vary across teachers and, with one exception, they do not vary across subjects.