learning-styles

6.2
Honey and Mumford’s Learning Styles
Questionnaire (LSQ)
Introduction
In the late 1970s, Alan Mumford was in charge of senior
management development at the Chloride Organisation
and invited Peter Honey, a chartered psychologist,
to join him in studying the then relatively neglected topic
of how managers learn. They began by administering
Kolb’s Learning Style Inventory (LSI), which was the first,
and for some time the only, available diagnostic tool
for exploring how individuals learn. Because the LSI
was found to have low face validity with managers,
Honey and Mumford spent four years experimenting
with different approaches to assessing individual
differences in learning preferences before producing
the Learning Styles Questionnaire (LSQ) in 1982.
So instead of asking people directly how they learn,
as Kolb’s LSI does – something which most people
have never consciously considered – Honey and
Mumford give them a questionnaire which probes
general behavioural tendencies rather than learning.
The new instrument was designed to be used as
a starting point for discussion and improvement.
Peter Honey has continued working in the same vein,
producing a series of manuals for trainers and self-help
booklets for learners (eg Honey 1994).
The links with Kolb’s work remain strong, however,
because the four learning styles are connected to
a revised version of Kolb’s experiential learning cycle.
So, for example, activists are said to have a predilection
for experiencing; reflectors for reviewing experiences
or mulling over data; theorists for drawing conclusions;
and pragmatists for planning the next steps (see
Figure 11). Honey and Mumford’s intention is that
learners should become proficient in all four stages
of the learning cycle.
Definitions and descriptions
Honey and Mumford (1992, 1) define a learning style
as being ‘a description of the attitudes and behaviour
which determine an individual’s preferred way
of learning’. The four learning styles are described
as those of activists, reflectors, theorists and
pragmatists and the following lists in Table 21 give
a brief summary of the strengths and weaknesses
of each style:
The authors are keen to emphasise (2000, 43) that
‘no single style has an overwhelming advantage
over any other. Each has strengths and weaknesses
but the strengths may be especially important
in one situation, but not in another’. They are also
careful not to exaggerate the significance of personal
learning styles and explicitly acknowledge that they
constitute only one factor in a range of influences
which include past experiences of learning, the range
of opportunities available, the culture and climate
for learning and the impact of the trainer/teacher,
among many other factors.
Moreover, it is emphasised that the LSQ should be
used for personal and organisational development and
not for assessment or selection, an approach which,
it is argued, encourages respondents to behave
honestly. Honey and Mumford also provide answers
to some of the most frequently posed questions about
learning styles, the most significant of which are briefly
discussed here.
Are there only four learning styles?
The figure of four is defended because ‘they are easy
to remember, they reinforce the stages people need to
go through to become balanced learners and they are
widely understood, accepted and used by learners…’
(Honey and Mumford 2000, 19).
Can learning style preferences change?
Learning styles ‘are modifiable at will’ – for example,
to strengthen an underdeveloped style; or ‘by a change
of circumstances’ (Honey and Mumford 2000, 19) –
for example, a change of job to a firm with a different
learning culture.
How accurate are self-perceptions?
It is admitted that ‘self-perceptions can be misleading
[and that] the answers are easy to fake if someone is
determined to give a misleading impression’ (Honey and
Mumford 2000, 20). The latter is considered less likely
if people have been assured that the LSQ is a tool for
personal development.
Why does the LSQ allow a binary choice – tick or cross?
‘To keep it simple’ (Honey and Mumford 2000, 21).
This does not obviate the difficulty many people find
in being forced to respond ‘Yes’ or ‘No’ to such items as
‘I tend to be open about how I’m feeling’ or ‘I’m always
interested to find out what people think’.
Aren’t labels misleading/stereotyping?
The labels ‘are a convenient oversimplification … [and]
a starting point for discussion on how an individual
learns. That discussion will remove any misleading
judgements’ (2000, 21). This presupposes that
the LSQ is always used by trainers/tutors who are
knowledgeable about the strengths and limitations
of the approach, who are aware of the dangers
of labelling and stereotyping and who discuss the
results of the LSQ individually with the learners. Indeed,
elsewhere, Honey and Mumford (2000, 41) argue that
a trainer needs to be ‘…adept at interpreting the
questionnaire and counselling interested parties
in its implications’.