Recognising diverse learning styles in teaching and assessment of electronic engineering

Abstract

University of South Australia initiatives to make the electronic engineering curriculum more inclusive have been supported and informed by corporate policies. These policies require all curricula to be inclusive, and also to develop specified graduate attributes. After an overview of the literature about learning styles, this paper describes how the corporate advice is implemented in the electronic engineering curriculum. The authors have identified two different interpretations of the term 'learning styles'. The first interpretation sees personality and life experience as the key influences on learning styles, while the second defines learning styles as the practices students develop in response to the expectations of their teachers. The literature relating to each interpretation is considered, with particular reference to certain social and cultural groups which are under-represented in electronic engineering in the authors' university. Finally, the authors demonstrate the integration of these concepts and approaches into the learning and assessment strategies of an electronics course.