Abstract

This study was conducted with senior secondary schools Form Four learners doing science in the Leribe District of Lesotho. It sets out to probe the possibility of the influence of cultural values on students’ learning style preferences and their possible differences by gender. Filled questionnaires were collected from the eleven schools from which the study was conducted. Also, focus group discussions, with equal representation of both genders, were conducted in six of the eleven schools representative of all the regions under study. The quantitative data were subjected to SPSS analysis and the MANOVA results gave significant multivariate main effect for school location. Results showed that the learners were culturally socialized to be respectful to authority and had a visual learning style preference in the Highlands and Lowlands with no gender differences.

Key words: Learning style preference, Senior secondary school, Cultural values, Gender differences, Lesotho, Africa.