LEARNING STYLES OF FRESHMEN ENGINEERING STUDENTS

Abstract

The learning styles of freshmen engineering students in a public engineering school in Brazil were identified using the Index of Learning Styles (ILS). This is an instrument created and currently being developed by Felder and Soloman to assess the respondent's positions on four continuous learning dimensions or scales: Active/Reflective, Sensing/ Intuition, Visual/Verbal and Sequential/Global. The study was conducted in two years and the results described herein are the ILS responses from 351 freshmen engineering students, subdivided into four groups: Civil, Electrical, Mechanical and Industrial Engineering. All groups completed the ILS in their first academic year (March/April) and the overall responses showed a preference for an Active (60%), Sensing (74%), Visual (79%) and Global/Sequential (both 50%) learning style. This paper presents the overall distribution responses of freshmen engineering students to the applied instrument and also summarizes some specific ILS items, which draw out significant responses.