Relationships between students' demographic background, subject areas, and learning patterns in post-secondary education of hong kong

The present study is based on the results of an administration of a Chinese translation of the Inventory of Learning Styles (ILS) to a large sample of post-secondary students in Hong Kong. The ILS was originally developed in a Dutch higher education context to capture variation in students' learning patterns. In what is believed to be the first analysis of ILS data obtained in a Chinese response-context, empirical support is found in ‘small' effects of students' demographic background and subject areas on students' learning patterns. Support is also found in ‘moderate' effects of students' learning orientations and conceptions of learning on students' regulation strategies, and ‘large' effects of the other ILS components on students' processing strategies, especially those from students' regulation strategies. Despite possible cultural differences, the present findings largely corroborate the results of other published work, especially the posited central explanatory role of regulation strategies among the ILS components.