Impact of Cultural Diversity on Learning style preferences among hospitality and tourism students 6

ABSTRACT: Educational researchers postulate that the increased rate of migration of students to other countries underscores the importance of sustaining academic excellence irrespective of cultural background.Many authors and researchers derived learning theories and styles based on the fact that students have different learning style preferences and are influenced by several factors. Culture is one of the major influencing factors that have determined the need to analyse the impact on learning style preferences. Thus, this study aims to investigate the relationship between cultural diversity and learning style preferences of business students. One hundred and twenty one samples were selected by non-probability convenient sampling technique. The cultural diversity self assessment inventory and perceptual learning style preference quaestionnaire were used.Descriptive analysis using Spearman Rank correlation was employed to determine the relationship between the variables and ANOVA was utilized to identify the association between cultural diversity and learning style preferences. The results found that there is a strong correlation between cultural diversity and learning style preferences. These preferences are also found to affected by cultural values. The findings have drawn attention to facets of learning, curriculum and cultivation of advanced instructional technology in which teachers and managers play a vital role in the development of individuals from different cultural backgrounds. 56

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