The role of student learning styles, gender, attitudes and perceptions on information and communication technology assisted learning Graham Shaw a, *, Nigel Marlow b a Department of Basic Medical Sciences, California College of Podiatric Medicine, 1210 Scott Street, San Francisco, CA 94115, USA b School of Health and Sports Science, The University of North London, Holloway Road, N7 8DB, London, UK Received 16 March 1999; accepted 15 September 1999 Abstract The present study adopts an illuminative approach to evaluate students' initial attitudes towards the use of information and communication technology (ICT). Ninety-nine undergraduate science students participated in this study and their learning styles were classi®ed according to Honey and Mumford (1986) (Honey, P., Mumford, A., 1986. The Manual of Learning styles. Peter Honey, 10 Linden Avenue, Maidenhead) learning style questionnaire. Student learning styles were classi®ed as activist, re¯ector, theorist, or pragmatist. No signi®cant dierence in learning styles was observed between genders and between student cohorts. Six dimensions to student attitudes toward ICT were identi®ed as follows; `comfort', `interactivity', `self-satisfaction', `value new technology', `experience' and `context'. Students exhibited low scores in the attitude dimensions of `value new technology', `interactivity' and `context' indicating that they were uncomfortable with computers, were unhappy about the lack of personal contact and would prefer to learn in a more traditional mode. A signi®cant, though weak, negative correlation between the `theorist' and the `interactivity' and `context' attitude dimensions was also observed. In addition, based on the results of this study it appears that ®rst year students exhibit a more positive perception of ICT supported learning than second and third year students. Though the use of ICT in higher education is becoming more widespread based on the results of this study student use of the technology may be limited by a negative attitude toward a style of teaching which is not consistent with their past learning experiences. # 2000 Elsevier Science Ltd. All rights reserved. Keywords: Computer assisted learning; Learning styles; Attitude; Gender Computers & Education 33 (1999) 223±234 0360-1315/00/$ - see front matter # 2000 Elsevier Science Ltd. All rights reserved. PII: S0360-1315(99)00020-2 www.elsevier.com/locate/compedu * Corresponding author. Tel.: +44-171-607-2789 X 2274; fax: +44-171-753-5081. E-mail address: g.shaw@unl.ac.uk (G. Shaw).