Abstract
This study examines the effect of culture on learning styles. The study sample consisted of undergraduate and graduate students, most of whom are foreign nationals, studying in different departments of Ondokuz Mayıs University in Samsun, Turkey. Based on the experiential learning theory (ELT), Kolb's Learning Styles Inventory (KLSI) was used as a data collection tool to define individual learning styles. By examining previous studies such as the Global Leadership and Organizational Effectiveness (GLOBE), the study focused on categorizing cultural differences. 193 participants from 35 different nationalities were included in one of three cultural clusters (The Middle East, Africa, and Central Asia). In the first part of the study, the dominant learning styles of each cultural cluster were evaluated based on Kolb's traditional 4 learning styles (diverging, converging, assimilating, and accommodating) and the new 9 learning styles (experiencing, imagining, reflecting, analysing, thinking, deciding, acting, balancing) defined in KLSI 3.2 and KLSI 4. It was analysed whether there was a statistically significant difference in the dominant learning styles among the cultural clusters. The results of the analysis showed that there was no significant difference among the cultural clusters according to 4 learning style classifications, whereas there were significant differences among the cultural clusters according to Kolb’s 9 learning style classifications. In the second part of the study, it was evaluated whether there was a significant difference among the cultural clusters according to the modes of grasping experience – concrete experience (CE) and abstract conceptualization (AC) – and two dialectically related modes of transforming experience—reflective observation defined in the ELT model.
 Keywords: learning style, Kolb learning style inventory (KLSI), culture, cultural dimensions, cultural clusters, higher education
Highlights
The export of higher education services has become an important financial resource for most countries
More than half of the students in the Middle East and Sub-Saharan African clusters were in the west quadrant, whereas two-thirds of students in the Central Asian cluster were in the east quadrant
The results of the research revealed that there was no significant difference among the cultural clusters, based on Kolb's four learning styles, and on the other hand, the difference among the cultural clusters was significant according to Kolb's new nine learning style classification
Summary
The export of higher education services has become an important financial resource for most countries Developing countries such as Turkey have seen an increase in the number of foreign students, as well as developed ones such as the USA, United Kingdom, France, Germany. According to the statistics of Turkey Higher Education Information Management System (THEIMS) (YÖBS,2020), there were a total of 107,947 foreign students enrolled at universities in Turkey, in the 2016-2017 academic year in which this study was carried out. This number reached 154,446 increasing approximately by 50% in the 2018-2019 academic year. The issue of the impact of cultural differences on learning has been becoming more important in higher education
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