Comparisons of learning preferences in an engineering program

The results are presented of the responses of first year engineering students, fourth year engineering students and faculty to an Index of Learning Styles. This self-report forced-choice instrument classifies the learning preferences of the respondents on four scales: active/reflective, sensing/intuition, visual/verbal and sequential/global. The faculty learning preferences compared with both groups of engineering students were significantly more Reflective, Intuitive, and Visual. The faculty preferences were also significantly less Sequential than the first year student group. Although the faculty ILS learning preference was strongly Visual, even more Visual than the students', they mostly teach in a Verbal style, probably because it is easier to do so. The teaching and presentation of engineering courses would be more effective for the majority of students if they contained elements which appealed to all learning styles, which, these results suggest would require them to incorporate and emphasise more Active, Sensing, Visual and Global components.