Comparative analysis of the learning styles of Russian versus other adolescents from diverse nations by age, gender, and academic achievement level

Scientific literature has indicated that many individuals have learning styles, i.e., unique patterns for learning new and difficult information (Dunn & Dunn, 1999). In further research, investigators have shown that accommodations to these learning styles result in significantly more successful learning (Bovell & Ansalone, 2001). A large body of research on learning-style preferences indicated that learning styles differ as a function of gender, age, level of academic achievement, and country of origin (Dunn, Thies, & Honigsfeld, 2001).; The present researcher investigated the learning-style preferences of 885 Russian adolescents from Moscow schools. The participants consisted of females and males, 13, 15, and 17 years old, who were of low-, average-, and high-academic achievement. To obtain measures of learning-style preferences, a Russian translation of the Learning Styles Inventory (LSI) of Dunn, Dunn, and Price (1974 to 2001) was administered. The LSI was computer scored by Price Systems Inc. (Kansas) and statistically analyzed using the SPSS Version 10 for Windows.; The mean scores for the 22 elements of the LSI indicated that, as a group, Russian adolescents did not evidence learning-style preferences outside the normal range. However, a frequency distribution analysis of the data indicated that large percentages of Russian adolescents had scores on each of the 22 learning-style elements indicating that they had strong preferences and were likely to benefit from special accommodations in pedagogy. Further analyses of the data showed that there were statistically significant differences in Russian adolescents' learning-style preferences as a function of gender, age, and academic achievement. The results of the present study were compared with the results of highly similar studies of adolescents from seven other countries. Those researchers also used the Dunn, Dunn, and Price LSI and surveyed adolescents with essentially the same demographics (gender, age, and relative level of academic achievement). The results of this cross-national analysis revealed that Russian adolescents differed from adolescents in a number of countries on a number of learning-style preferences. On the other hand, Russian adolescents were no different from adolescents in other countries on their extremely varied learning-style preferences. Knowledge of the idiosyncratic learning-style preferences of Russian adolescents can help Russian educators devise pedagogical strategies to maximize their students' learning.