Purpose: Catering for learner diversity is a key issue in the recent educational reforms in Hong Kong. The present study addresses this issue through an investigation of the relationships between students' learning styles and approaches to learning in Hong Kong secondary schools.Design/Approach/Methods: A total of 6,054 junior secondary students in Hong Kong responded to a questionnaire consisting of two instruments. A series of confirmatory factor analysis, two-way analysis of variance, and structural equation modeling analysis were conducted.Findings: The results identified three types of learning style among the students which are characterized by a cognitive orientation, a social orientation, and a methodological orientation. Some significant gender- and achievement-level differences were revealed. Compared with the socially oriented learning style, the cognitively and methodologically oriented learning styles were more extensively and strongly related to students' approaches to learning, even though these students showed a greater preference for the socially oriented learning style.Originality/Value: It is unwise to blindly cater for students' learning styles in classroom teaching and curriculum design. Teachers should adopt a comprehensive and balanced approach toward the design of curriculum and teaching which not only highlights the congruence between students' learning styles and teacher's pedagogy but also integrates the constructive frictions between them into classroom teaching. Copyright © 2020 The Author(s).

Although Hong Kong government has done a great job in various areas for active aging such as social security, residential care services, community care and support systems, the English education for elders is a weak point. This paper analyzes the current situation of English education for elders in Hong Kong from four perspectives: barriers, motivations, styles and methods of English learning for elders. Suggestions, possible solutions and necessary actions are also proposed accordingly.

This paper reports and discusses on the initial stage of a study aiming to explore the relationship between students’ learning styles and their acceptance of using Second Life (SL) for learning. Par- ticipants in this study involved a small group of undergraduate students (N = 17) taking a Visual Arts course called ‘Digital Imaging’ at a university in Hong Kong. They were asked to create and showcase their own digital artwork in SL. Furthermore, they were also required to present their work and critique peers’ work in SL. Their learning styles were measured by the Index of Learning Styles (ILS), whereas their acceptance of Second Life for learning was evaluated by a questionnaire designed by the author. Preliminary findings of this study reveal that most participants were identified as visual learners (i.e. the ones who prefer to see in graphical/video representation). However, active learners (i.e. the ones who prefer to try something out to see how it works) were found more likely to accept the educational use of SL.
[Copyright © 2012 SciRes.]

This is an abridged report on an exploratory research project on the suitability of Andragogy and Action Learning approaches to management education for local adult learners. Adult learners of the Open University of Hong Kong (OUHK) taking hig her-lever courses in business and management were invited as respondents. The objectives were to find out respondents' predominant learning styles, learning preferences, motivation of study and possible influence of local Chinese culture which might have impact on the suitability of the two approaches and management education. The research findings revealed that the predominant learning styles and learning preferences were mainly the Reflector style and Reflective activities, compatible with the general expectation and stereotype of local Chinese learners as discussed elsewhere in various literature, local and overseas. It appeared that Chinese culture would have some impact on the learning styles of local learners. However, the preliminary attempt to est ablish a closer link/relationship between the local Chinese culture and the learning styles by using Hofstede's cultural framework and Honey and Mumford's learning styles typology was inconclusive. The study nevertheless did reveal that the Andragogy and Action Learning approaches were not very much in favour as most features of these approaches did not quite match the predominant learning style, predominant learning preferences or the most important motivation of study of the respondents.
本研究利用問卷調查《運用成人學習方式》及《行動學習法於管理 教育》對本地成人學生的恰當性。目的是探討調查對象的主要學習風格，學習偏好， 學習動機及本地中國文化對該兩種學習法運用於管理教育方面的可能影響。 調查顯示學生的主要學習風格及喜好是沉思型及思考類型的學習方／活動，與一般 海內外公認的華人學習形式（Chinese learning stereotypes）相同。似乎支持中國 文化對學習風格及喜好有一定影響的論點。調查嘗試以Honey & Mumford的學習風格 類別（Learning style typology）及Hofstede的文化指標（cultural framework） 進一步探討中國文化與學習風格的關係， 但沒有肯定結論。無論如何，調查結果顯示《成人學習》及《行動學習法》兩種 學習方式，整體來說並不符合學生的主要學習風格，喜好甚至動機。如果上述調查 結果可以一般化，則《成人學習》及《行動學習法》兩種學習方式，對本港成人學 生來說，學習效果（effectiveness）並不高；但從管理教育方面考慮，上述兩種 方法仍有可取之處（usefulness）