Psychometric properties of Honey & Mumford's Learning Styles Questionnaire (LSQ)

Abstract

Honey and Mumford's Learning Style Questionnaire (LSQ) has been proposed as an alternative for Kolb's Learning Style Inventory (LSI) and a later refined version (LSI-1985). The LSQ has been widely applied in the fields of management training and education. Limited evidence exists concerning the psychometric properties of the LSQ. Participants were 224 undergraduates enrolled in business courses and 164 undergraduates in health studies. Exploratory and confirmatory factor analysis failed to support the existence of the two bipolar dimensions proposed by Kolb, and four learning styles hypothesised by Honey and Mumford. An item analysis and pruning exercise failed to raise the internal consistency reliability to a satisfactory level, or provide adequate model fit to the data. The results of a structural equation model finds no consistent relationship between scores on the four learning style scales, two bipolar dimensions and academic performance between the two samples. The tests of factorial invariance provide no support for the stability or generalizability of the model. It is concluded: the LSQ is not a suitable alternative to the LSI and LSI-1985; and its use in applied research considering higher education students is premature.