Preferred Learning Style: Gender Influence on Preferred Learning Style among Business Students

Past studies indicate that there was a correlation between gender and students' preferred styles of learning. Thus, the purpose of this study is to determine the influence of gender on the learning style preferences of business students based on the VARK (Fleming, 2002b) learning style survey, consisting of the V(isual), A(ural), R(ead-Write) and K(inesthetic) learning styles. The sampling design used for this study was non-probability sampling and the sampling technique conducted was convenient sampling on 207 male students and 199 female students from the business school. The study found that gender only influences the V(isual) and A(ural) learning styles of business students. In addition to that, even though both male and female students exhibited a similar response towards both these learning styles, female students were found to demonstrate slightly higher preference for the V(isual) and A(ural) learning styles as compared to the male students. The findings draw attention to facets of learning that may exist in pre-university and tertiary classrooms with a combination of female and male students, which could have an impact on teaching and managing these students.