Learning Styles and Adaptive Flexibility

TLDR

The study examined differences between balanced and specialized learning styles among 198 MBA students by administering three experiential learning theory–derived instruments—the Learning Style Inventory, Adaptive Style Inventory, and Learning Skills Profile. Balanced learning styles exhibited greater adaptive flexibility, whereas experiencing‑specialized styles enhanced interpersonal skills at the expense of analytic skills and conceptualizing‑specialized styles showed the reverse, while acting/reflecting specializations yielded inconsistent results, and overall findings support that adaptive flexibility predicts higher levels of adult development.

Abstract

This research used three instruments derived from experiential learning theory—the Learning Style Inventory, the Adaptive Style Inventory and the Learning Skills Profile—to test hypotheses about differences between balanced and specialized learning styles in a sample of 198 part-time and full-time MBA students. Learning styles that balanced experiencing and conceptualizing showed greater adaptive flexibility in responding to experiencing and conceptualizing learning contexts. The learning style specializing in experiencing showed higher levels of skill development in interpersonal skills and lower levels of skill development in analytic skills; while the reverse was true for the learning style specializing in conceptualizing. Similar tests for the acting/reflecting specialized and balanced learning styles showed no consistent results. Analysis of male and female subsamples produced results supporting these general conclusions. The study adds further construct validity for the hypothesis that adaptive flexibility in learning style is predictive of highly integrated and complex levels of adult development.