Catering for Learner Diversity in Hong Kong Secondary Schools - Insights from the Relationships Between Students’ Learning Styles and Approaches

Oct 15, 2026

Catering for learner diversity is central to recent educational reforms in Hong Kong. This study examines how students’ learning styles relate to their approaches to learning among Hong Kong secondary students. Using responses from 6,054 junior secondary students to a two-instrument questionnaire, the analysis applies confirmatory factor analysis, two-way ANOVA, and structural equation modeling. Three learning-style types emerged: cognitive, social, and methodological, with gender- and achievement-level differences.

LanguageEnglish

CategoryResearch & Report

FormatPDF

Pages22

Reading Time55 min

AccessFree to download

Abstract

Purpose

Design/Approach/Methods

Findings

Originality/Value

The emphasis on catering for learner diversity in Hong Kong

Learner diversity and responsive teaching

Educational reforms in Hong Kong

Learning styles and approaches to learning

Catering for Learner Diversity in Hong Kong Secondary Schools: Insights from the Relationships Between Students’ Learning Styles and Approaches Hongbiao Yin The Chinese University of Hong Kong John Chi-Kin Lee The Education University of Hong Kong Zhonghua Zhang The University of Melbourne ECNU Review of Education 2020, Vol. 3(4) 610–631 ª The Author(s) 2020 Article reuse guidelines: [sagepub.com/journals-permissions](sagepub.com/journals-permissions)[ ](sagepub.com/journals-permissions)[DOI: 10.1177/2096531120911800](DOI: 10.1177/2096531120911800)[ ](DOI: 10.1177/2096531120911800)[journals.sagepub.com/home/roe](journals.sagepub.com/home/roe) Abstract 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 Corresponding author: Hongbiao Yin, Faculty of Education, The Chinese University of Hong Kong, R407, Ho Tim Bldg, Shatin, NT, Hong Kong SAR, China. Email: [yinhb@cuhk.edu.hk](yinhb@cuhk.edu.hk) Creative Commons Non Commercial CC BY-NC: This article is distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial 4.0 License ([https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc/4.0/](https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc/4.0/)) which permits non-commercial use, reproduction and distribution of the work without further permission provided the original work is attributed as specified on the SAGE and Open Access pages ([https://us.sagepub.com/en-us/nam/open-access-at-sage](https://us.sagepub.com/en-us/nam/open-access-at-sage)). 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. Keywords Approaches to learning, Hong Kong, junior secondary students, learner diversity, learning styles Date received: 11 January 2020; accepted: 19 February 2020 The emphasis on catering for learner diversity in Hong Kong Learner diversity is a recurrent issue in education attracting the attention of both researchers and practitioners (Rosenfeld & Rosenfeld, 2008; Tatto, 1996; Tomlinson, 1999) . The importance of catering for learner diversity is almost universally recognized (Ruys et al., 2013) . To make classroom teaching effective, teachers have to abandon the illusion that there exists some “one-size-fitsall” approach to teaching. Instead, they need to be responsive to the individual differences among students in terms of ability, readiness, interests, and so on, and appropriately address these diversities by adjusting their teaching content, instructional strategies, and assessment schemes (Tomlinson, 1999; Wan, 2017) . During the past decade, catering for learner diversity is one of the key areas in the ed

FAQs

What problem does the study address regarding Hong Kong secondary education?

It addresses how to cater for learner diversity by examining relationships between students’ learning styles and their approaches to learning in Hong Kong secondary schools.

How was the study conducted and what data were used?

A total of 6,054 junior secondary students responded to a questionnaire with two instruments. Confirmatory factor analysis, two-way ANOVA, and structural equation modeling were conducted.

What learning style types were identified among the students?

Three learning style types were identified: a cognitive orientation, a social orientation, and a methodological orientation, along with significant gender and achievement-level differences.

Oct 15, 2026

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