The Psychometric Properties of the Learning Style Inventory and the Learning Style Questionnaire: Two Normative Measures of Learning Styles

David Kolb has provided a detailed, useful and widely accepted theory of experiential learning and learning styles. He developed the Learning Styles Inventory (LSI) to assess four learning abilities and four learning styles. Kolb's work is viewed favourably for establishing the existence of individual differences in learning styles, but the major criticism against his work is focused on his method of measuring learning styles and more specifically on the psychometric properties of the LSI. The LSI is an ipsative instrument and the limitations placed on the statistical analysis of data of ipsative measures makes it inappropriate for reliability and validity evaluation of the instrument. In this study the psychometric properties of two normative measures of learning styles, a normative version of the LSI (referred to as the LSI-Likert) and the Learning Style Questionnaire (LSQ), are investigated. A review of the literature on the LSI is presented and the development of normative versions of the LSI is reviewed. First-year university students registered for either a science or human sciences degree completed the two normative instruments. The internal reliability of the four learning ability scales was determined using alpha coefficient. The internal reliability of the LSI-Likert and LSQ was found to be relatively high. The presence of a response bias for both instruments was suspected. It appeared that the LSI-Likert was more successful than the LSQ in differentiating learning abilities and styles in the sample used. Item factor analysis demonstrated two bipolar factors in line with Kolb's theory for the LSQ. The four-factor solution for the LSI-Likert produced four factors which to some extent represented the four learning abilities.