Engineering students learning preferences in UNITEN: Comparative study and patterns of learning styles

Abstract

Engineering educators have been increasingly taking the learning style theories into serious consideration as part of their efforts to enhance the teaching and learning in engineering. This paper presents a research study to investigate the learning style preference of the mechanical engineering students in Universiti Tenaga Nasional (UNITEN), Malaysia by means of the Personality and Learning Styles instruments. Descriptive statistical method was used to analyze the collected samples (n = 122). The findings of this study revealed that the preference style for engineering students are more towards spontaneous, pragmatic and concrete style of learning. This is consistent with the previous research findings on the learning preference for engineering students in UNITEN using Honey and Mumford Learning Style Questionnaire (LSQ) and Felder and Silverman Index of Learning Style (ILS) instruments. Therefore, it is important for the engineering educators to be aware of the students learning preferences by adjusting the teaching and learning strategies to unleash the learning potential of the students. Multi-approaches in teaching and learning are recommended to accommodate different students learning preferences while widening the students learning capabilities in engineering education.