In-Depth Analysis of the Arabic Version of the Felder-Silverman Index of Learning Styles

Nahla Aljojo^1, , Carl Adams², Abeer Alkhouli³, Huda Saifuddin⁴ and Iqbal Alsaleh⁵

¹Faculty of Computing and Information Technology, Information Systems Department, King AbdulAziz University, Jeddah, KSA

²School of Computing, University of Portsmouth, Portsmouth, UK, Buckingham Building, Lion Terrace, Portsmouth PO1 3HE

³Faculty of Sciences, Department of Statistics, King AbdulAziz University, Jeddah, KSA

⁴Arts and Humanities College, Cognitive Psychology Department, King AbdulAziz University, Makkah, KSA

⁵Faculty of Economics and Administration, Information Systems Department, King AbdulAziz University, Jeddah, KSA

Cite this paper:
Nahla Aljojo, Carl Adams, Abeer Alkhouli, Huda Saifuddin and Iqbal Alsaleh. In-Depth Analysis of the Arabic Version of the Felder-Silverman Index of Learning Styles. American Journal of Information Systems. 2015; 3(1):22-30. doi: 10.12691/ajis-3-1-3

Abstract

The aim of this paper is to compare learning style characteristics from two very different linguistic and cultural groups to see how homogeneous they are.. The paper analyses the learning styles of a large sample of Arabic learners using the first validated Arabic version of the Felder-Silverman learning style model (FSLSM), and compares these with samples from English learners in previous studies, notably a study from Graf et al. The analysis takes the form of linear discriminant analysis, cross validated by frequencies and correlation analysis to identify representative characteristics of each learning style dimension and to determine how representative these characteristics are within the different samples. To ensure robust methodological support, the paper applies the methods used by Graf et al., therefore providing a direct comparison between the English and Arabic groups of learners from the two studies. Our results show differences between representative characteristics for the different learning cohorts, which could indicate that culture and learning environment have an influence on learning style preferences.

Keywords:
learning styles Felder-Silverman learning style model discriminant analysis Arabic cohort

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