| This study was undertaken to explore the possibility of developing a learning style inventory that was able to identify the learning style preferences of Native American college students. The pilot study tested the first draft of the instrument and was administered to 116 participants during the fall 2006 semester at the Window Rock campus of Dine' College. The administration of the revised instrument included 191 participants and took place during the summer 2007 semester at the Tsaile and Chinle campuses of Dine' College.;Exploratory factor analysis (EFA) was conducted on data from the pilot study. The EFA resulted in 12 factors which were in excess of the number of learning styles being investigated. For theoretical reasons, four factors were forced in the second analysis which following analysis resulted in the deletion of 16 items, leaving 27 for the revised instrument.;EFA was also conducted on the data from the main study, resulting in 8 factors. This was more than the hypothesized number of desired factors, thus for theoretical reasons three factors were forced in the second analysis of the data. The results suggested that the instrument was not functioning as expected. However, an analysis of the mean factor scores indicated that the participants in the study showed a statistically significant preference for the tactile and visual learning styles in comparison the verbal learning style.;A panel of five educators formed the Delphi panel that was responsible for developing items for the learning style inventory. The panel developed 43 items. |
