The Relationship between Gender Differences and Learning Style Preferences of Pre-Service Teachers at Elementary Level

Individual differences play an essential role in teaching and learning. Students differ in their learning styles which indicate the way they learn. The purpose of this study was to determine pre-service teachers' learning style preferences and investigate whether there was a significant difference between males and females in their learning styles. 121 students from department of elementary science education were enrolled in the study. All students were administered Learning Style Inventory developed by Grasha (1996) in order to determine their learning styles. This inventory consists of six types of learning style as independent, avoidant, collaborative, dependent, competitive and participant. Multivariate Analysis of Variance (MANOVA) was used to analyze the data. The findings indicated that there was no significant difference in learning style preferences between males and females. Generally, the majority of students preferred collaborative type learning style. This study suggests that instruction should be based on students' learning styles for effective teaching and learning. (Contains 3 tables.)