Learning Style Preferences: Influence of Cultural Background among Business Students

The study scrutinizes the learning style preferences of business students. It aims to analyze the influence of cultural background on the preference of learning style of these students. The students were divided into two categories based on cultural background namely Malaysian and International students who are currently enrolled in the business school. The sample size of the study is 406 students studying at the business school in five different programmes. The VARK questionnaire developed by Neil Fleming was utilized to assess the learning style preferences. VARK is an acronym of V(isual), A(ural), R(ead-write) and K(inesthetic) (Fleming 2001). Descriptive statistics method was employed for data analysis. The outcome of the analysis is that cultural background does influence the preference for A(ural), V(isual) and K(inesthetic) styles of learning . However, it does not play a role in deciding on the R(ead-write) learning style. The findings indicate that cultural background plays a significant role in influencing the learning style preferences of business students. Therefore, it draws attention to dimensions of learning diversity that may be present in business school.