Learning styles, culture and inclusive instruction in the multicultural classroom: A business and management perspective

This article examines the learning style profile exhibited by students in a multicultural class of international business management, and how cultural conditioning is reflected in the learning style preferences of home and in ternational students. Using the Felder and Soloman's Index of learning Styl es, this study finds that each learning style dimension measured by the ins trument is amply represented and that the scores reported by international students on all but one learning style dimension show much wider measures o f dispersion compared to those of home students suggesting that greater var iations in learning preferences are likely to co-exist in culturally hetero geneous cohorts. Suggestions on how to move toward a multistyle teaching ap proach to business management education so as to enfranchise all students i n the multicultural classroom are then put forward. Finally, a discussion o f the implications of these findings with respect to the business managemen t curriculum design is provided.