Gender Differences in Approaches to Learning: Across Cultures

Abstract

This article assesses the cross‐cultural models of approaches to learning. Using the Learning Process Questionnaire (LPQ; Biggs, 1987), a 36‐item, self‐report questionnaire, on a sample of 612 Urban South African students to measure the extent to which students endorse different approaches to learning by identifying the motives and strategies that comprise those approaches, and the generalizability of the findings of greater male variability based on purely biological interpretations of gender differences. Results uphold cross‐cultural support for the dimensions of deep and surface strategies to learning. However, it appears despite the differences in learning conceptualizations, the strategies utilized by students in the Western educational context are similar to those used by their African counterparts. In addition, there was considerable unsystematic variation in variability in approaches to learning from country to country, with greater male variability in learning strategies than females in some countries, and vice versa. In particular, the Urban South African LPQ responses, compared with their like‐aged counterparts from Nigeria, Australia and Hong Kong indicated that the popular U.S. belief in greater male variability hypothesis may not be generalizable to other parts of the universe or consistent over a wide range of cultures.

Key words:

• Gender differences
• learning
• culture