Does the Learning Styles Questionnaire measure style or process? A reply to Swailes and Senior (19991)

Swailes and Senior's (1999) examination of the psychometric properties and factor structure of the Learning Styles Questionnaire (LSQ) raised a number of questions regarding the instrument's construct validity and the relatio nship between learning style and learning process. Swailes and Senior argue d that there may be three learning styles as opposed to the four posited by Honey and Mumford (1986), however, they did not include a three-factor mod el in their confirmatory factor analysis and hence it is unclear if a three -factor solution represents an improvement on a four-factor solution. Furth ermore, the present study draws a distinction between style and process and an argument is presented which contends that the three-factor and four-fac tor solutions represent process models, as opposed to the style models embo died in Kolb's theory. This reply attempts to examine two- three- and four- factor solutions for the LSQ. The evidence appears to favour the convention al four-factor model, which may indicate that the LSQ measures individuals' preferences for each of four stages of an experiential learning process an d raises the question of its relationship with style per se.