The learning preferences of students and teachers: An Australian-American comparison

Abstract

The Learning Preference Scale—Students and the Learning Preference Scale—Teachers were administered to large samples from Sydney schools ( n = 1,814 and 619, respectively). With corresponding American versions, a large sample of students and teachers was tested in Minneapolis schools ( n = 1,059 and 342, respectively). Data were analyzed first in separate batches by country, and then combined using country as a variable. School year and sex findings are discussed for students. Teaching subject, sex, and years of teaching experience findings are discussed for teachers. The Sydney and Mineapolis data are similar when each data set is analyzed separately. In both cities the girl-boy differences are identical: the girls show stronger cooperative preferences and the boys stronger competitive and individualized preferences. The overall trends with regard to school year, too, are the same, with cooperative and competitive preferences increasing with year level and individualized preference decreasing. In addition, teachers in both cities show striking similarities. Males have more orientation to competitive learning than females. Primary/elementary teachers express more cooperative preferences than secondary teachers, whereas high school teachers, especially those of science and mathematics, are more strongly competitive in their preferences. Dissimilarities become evident, however, when direct comparisons are made between the sets of data for the two locations. Both students and teachers in Sydney are more competitively inclined, more individualistically inclined, and less cooperatively inclined than the sample of their American counterparts. Although the emphasis on competition and individualization in American schools has been seen as excessive and has drawn loud criticism from social commentators, this emphasis in Australia, which is even greater, has attracted very little attention. Because of geographic and social isolation, certain aspects of Australian society have been relatively free from criticism. Comparative data such as those from the present study offer the chance to bring the competitive/indivudalistic ethos predominant in Australia under critical examination.