Exploring learning styles among business studies students: A narrative review.

Abstract

This narrative review seeks to understand how learning styles influence the teaching and learning process among business studies students, by integrating existing findings, then highlights any major trends, challenges and relevances to educational practice and research. To be able to improve the effectiveness of teaching, particularly in business education where analytical and experiential, as well as interpersonal skills are important, it is important to know how students learn. Despite key pedagogic paradigms such as Kolb’s Experiential Learning Theory and the VARK model informing practice, there remain uncertainties concerning their authenticity and applicability. Increasing diversity in student populations and the proliferation of digital learning settings are making it challenging for educators to make sense of and use theories of learning styles in practice. We carried out an extensive search of the literature on Scopus, Web of Science, ERIC and Google Scholar. A review of the literature from 2020-2026 included quantitative and qualitative studies related to learning styles, instructional tactics, and academic outcomes in business education. Bibliographies of pertinent papers were also reviewed to identify further sources. The review also shows that those in business studies have varied learning preferences but kinesthetic and visual are the most common styles because of the practitioner-oriented case study focus of the field. Although adaptive, multimodal teaching methods promote engagement and learning, emphasis on matching instructional design to particular styles is disputed. Limitations in methods among studies use self-report measures, lack of longitudinal and cross-cultural studies may lead to contradiction results. This review highlights the value of dynamic, evidence-based instruction which values learning diversity and supports learner flexibility and metacognitive awareness. It points to the importance of future investigation combining mixed-method research and new technologies, like adaptive learning analytics, for a more comprehensive picture on emerging learning preferences in the globalized and digitalized business education landscape.