Международный журнал экономики и менеджмента

A Study on Learning Styles, Gender and Academic Performance of Post Graduate Management Students in India

Abstract

Ariz Naqvi and Farah Naqvi

The management courses in higher education has experienced a rapid increase in the number of female students in the past decade. A number of factors were found attributing to the cause including some major social and educational factors. These factors are well studied by the scholars in the past. However, there is still considerable gap in the literature pertaining to the relationship between learning styles and gender differences in the context of management education. This paper focuses on management education using Experiential Learning Theory (ELT) and explores the effects of learning styles and gender on the performance scores of undergraduate students in three successive academic years. Results of the study indicate that the distribution of learning style type preference of the chosen sample of students was more concentrated towards assimilating and converging styles. Further results also indicate non-significant difference of learning style and gender in all groups. The performance scores of males were found higher in Finance and Marketing disciplines, whereas scores of females were higher in Human Resource and International Business disciplines irrespective of non consistency in all the groups. The study concludes that instructors should use a learning strategy matching with the style of each learner in different majors of management opted by the students.