Learning styles and typologies of cultural differences: A theoretical and empirical comparison

Abstract

This study presents the relationship between six typologies of cultural differences and the learning styles of Kolb's learning model. Several cross-cultural studies about learning styles indicate that learning styles may differ from one culture to another, but few studies have addressed the question of which culture is related to which learning style or ability. The present study concerns this inquiry. Exploration of this inquiry has been made in two parts. The first part investigates conceptual analogies and relationships between Kolb's model and the six cultural typologies in the domains of anthropology, cross-cultural management, and crosscultural psychology. The second part focuses on the empirical results of six comparative studies about cross-cultural differences in learning styles in the past and discusses how six propositions generated from the first theoretical examination can reflect upon their past empirical results.Those two examinations suggest that particular culture, as categorized in those domains, relates to certain learning styles or abilities.Learning styles and culture 3

State of The Art of Learning Styles-Based Adaptive Educational Hypermedia Systems (Ls-Baehss)

“…However, studies that investigated the relationship between cross-cultural differences and learning styles and learning styles and other background and demographic features have concluded that "cultures do have distinctive learning style patterns and learning styles are a function of both nature and nurture" [126]. Yamazaki [109] and Joy and Kolb [107] studied the relationship between a particular culture and a certain LS by using Kolb's LSI. The results illustrated that each particular culture adopts a certain learning style.…”

A Study of Anglo Expatriate Managers’ Learning, Knowledge Acquisition, and Adjustment in Multinational Companies in China

“…People with diverging learning styles have strong potential to understand what behaviours are appropriate in different cultural contexts (Phillion, 2002). However, because they are less inclined to take (Pratt, 1991;Yamazaki, 2005). However, whilst diverging and converging learning styles tend to dominate Confucian and Anglo cultures respectively; learning styles can also vary within cultures due to a combination of disposition, personality type, educational specialization, career choice, current job role and tasks (Kolb & Kolb, 2009).…”

“…Peoples national culture (Yamazaki, 2005;Yamazaki & Kayes, 2004), work environment (Choo, 1998) and individual learning styles (Armstrong & Mahmud, 2008;Kolb & Kolb, 2005) have all been shown to influence the acquisition of tacit knowledge. When peoples learning styles are matched with their work environment, it has been demonstrated that they achieve significantly more learning outcomes in an educational context (Dunn & Griggs, 2003) and higher levels of managerial tacit knowledge in a management context Elaborating further on this person-culture congruence theory, individuals with a strong orientation toward the converging learning style would rather deal with technical tasks and problems than with social and interpersonal issues (Kolb, 1984).…”

“…Expatriation success will hinge on how well expatriate managers learn from their experiences (Ng, Dyne, & Ang, 2009) and the knowledge acquired is deemed to be an underestimated strategic outcome in the study of expatriate adjustment (Hocking, Brown, & Harzing, 2004). However, few studies have researched management learning and knowledge acquisition in the context of cross-cultural adjustment (Yamazaki, 2005). This is despite assertions that: different learning strategies may be required for effective adaptation in various host cultures (Yamazaki & Kayes, 2007); tacit knowledge is known to be one factor that distinguishes successful managers from others (Armstrong & Mahmud, 2008); culture is believed to shape peoples' preferred modes of learning (Yamazaki, 2010) and is argued to be one of the most powerful socialisation agents that impact on individuals styles of learning (De Vita, 2001;Lenartowicz et al, 2014).…”

The Cultural Dimensions of Information Use Among Emirati Postgraduate Students

“…For example culture and learning styles (Yamazaki, 2005); culture and information technology (Johns, Smith & Norman, 2003); personality and information interaction (Heinstrom, 2010); information use and international students (Hughes, 2009(Hughes, , 2013); information use and task complexity (Bystrom & Jarvelin, 1995). In comparison, very little empirical data exists on students' information use related to national culture in the UAE.…”